World Brain

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The World Brain is a concept that envisions a collective, global intelligence facilitated by interconnected information systems, enabling the aggregation and dissemination of knowledge across cultures and disciplines. It emphasizes the potential of technology to enhance human cognition and collaboration on a worldwide scale.

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Key research themes

1. How has the concept of a World Brain evolved and what are its implications for global knowledge organization and governance?

This theme investigates the historical development, conceptual foundations, and sociopolitical implications of the 'World Brain' idea initially proposed by H.G. Wells and its subsequent interpretations. It examines how this concept influences contemporary visions of global information networks, knowledge sharing, and collective intelligence, as well as the associated ethical and governance challenges.

H.G. Wells's Idea of a World Brain: A Critical Reassessment

by warden rayward

2016

Key finding: The paper critically analyzes Wells's 1938 conception of a World Brain, highlighting that his vision entailed a centralized global encyclopaedia aimed at knitting intellectual workers worldwide, but was rooted in problematic... Read more

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2008 World Brain as EarthGame (Chapter)

by Robert D Steele

2014

Key finding: This chapter reframes the World Brain concept within the context of modern complexity and communication technologies, emphasizing the failure of traditional bureaucratic governance in managing global challenges and advocating... Read more

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The Global Brain as a New Utopia

by Francis Heylighen

2021

Key finding: The article conceptualizes the Global Brain as a realistic yet optimistic utopia that integrates evolutionary psychology and complex adaptive systems theory. It articulates the Global Brain as a planetary-scale cognitive... Read more

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The Global Brain as a Model of the Future Information Society: An Introduction to the Special Issue

by Em M. Lenartowicz

2022, Technological Forecasting and Social Change

Key finding: This introduction articulates the Global Brain as a distributed intelligence emerging from human and technological networks, analogous to a nervous system coordinating a social superorganism. It emphasizes how this model... Read more

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Futures of a distributed memory. A global brain wave measurement (1800–2000)

by Jari Kaivo-oja

2022, Technological Forecasting and Social Change

Key finding: By analyzing Google Ngram data across multiple languages, this study empirically uncovers historical biases and fluctuations in the global brain’s conceptual memory related to social differentiation, such as secularization... Read more

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2. What are the sociotechnical and ethical challenges of managing brain data within the emerging Global Brain framework?

This theme addresses the practical and conceptual issues surrounding the governance, ethical handling, and technical management of large-scale brain data critical to global neuroscience initiatives. It probes the influence of diverse legal, cultural, and normative frameworks on data sharing, the necessity for international coordination, and the challenges posed by the distributed intelligence model inherent in the Global Brain concept.

Towards an understanding of global brain data governance: perceptions on the ethical and legal principles that influence brain data governance

by Bernd Carsten Stahl

2024

Key finding: Through qualitative interviews with neuroscientists, this study reveals divergent perceptions and prioritizations of ethical and legal principles shaping brain data governance globally, highlighting inconsistencies arising... Read more

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brainlife.io: A decentralized and open source cloud platform to support neuroscience research

by Sandra Hanekamp

2024, arXiv (Cornell University)

Key finding: This work introduces brainlife.io, a decentralized, open-source cloud platform designed to handle multifaceted neuroimaging data processing workflows. It addresses challenges related to data scale, complexity, transparency,... Read more

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Brain Culture. Shaping policy through neuroscience

by Jessica Pykett

2015

Key finding: Through interdisciplinary analysis, this work uncovers how neuroscientific knowledge—termed 'brain culture'—is increasingly embedded in UK public policy and governance practices, foregrounding behavioral, psychological and... Read more

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Hansson, K. & Bengtsen, P. (eds.) (2018). The Unbound Brain.

by Peter Bengtsen

2018, Culture Unbound

Key finding: This special issue offers critical cultural and scientific perspectives on how neuroscience reshapes concepts of mind, normality, and pathology in society. It highlights discursive and ethical questions arising from brain... Read more

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3. How do neuroscientific and cognitive models of brain function inform the Global Brain metaphor and its applications in cultural and social contexts?

This theme explores neuroscientific insights into brain plasticity, hemispheric specialization, and cultural cognitive differences, linking these to the conceptual metaphor of the Global Brain. It emphasizes how the brain's biological and social plasticity informs models of collective intelligence, cultural bridging, and cognitive diversity, enhancing our understanding of distributed cognition at the planetary scale.

The Brain's Body

by Victoria Pitts-Taylor

2025

Key finding: This work foregrounds the neurobiological and social plasticity of the brain, arguing for a conception of the brain as inseparable from its cultural, social, and bodily contexts. It challenges traditional mind-body dualism by... Read more

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The culturally intelligent brain: from detecting to bridging cultural differences

by Thomas Rockstuhl

2016

Key finding: This paper synthesizes cultural neuroscience findings, highlighting neurological underpinnings of cultural cognition differences and proposing an intercultural neuroscience framework focused on 'cultural intelligence' (CQ).... Read more

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Right Brainer, Left Brainer or Whole Brainer? Understanding the Brain Hemispheric Dominance Theory and Its Implications in Education

by Kathryn Rai

2025, Towards Excellence

Key finding: By reviewing empirical evidence and historical models related to hemispheric brain dominance, this paper elucidates functional specializations and integrative mechanisms of the left and right hemispheres. It challenges... Read more

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Envisaging a Comprehensible Global Brain -- as a Playful Organ: Patterns connecting the dots between hemispheres, epicycles and quavers

by Anthony Judge

2019, www.laetusinpraesens.org

Key finding: This conceptual work uses analogies from neuroscience, cyclic dynamics, and pattern recognition to propose the Global Brain as a self-organizing, playful cognitive system. It connects historical and modern representations of... Read more

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All papers in World Brain

Envisaging a Comprehensible Global Brain -- as a Playful Organ: Patterns connecting the dots between hemispheres, epicycles and quavers

by Anthony Judge

2019, www.laetusinpraesens.org

Patterning and framing a global brain? Systemic feedback cycles of global brain interrelationships in 2D Various representations of cyclic dynamics with implications for a global brain Implication of 3D representation of a global brain... more

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Hansson, K. & Bengtsen, P. (eds.) (2018). The Unbound Brain.

by Peter Bengtsen

2018, Culture Unbound

Special issue of "Culture Unbound". Through an introduction and six original articles, the issue investigates a variety of cultural and scientific discourses and practices that in different ways are related to neuroscience and the... more

Figure 1: Female Active looking fondly at a necklace she received during an assignment, moments before her mind is wiped and she returns to her doll state. See Dollhouse, Season 1, Episode 1: ‘Ghost”. First broadcast 13 February 2009. The scene described above establishes a central premise of Dollhouse: that it is imprint it with new memories, abilities, and personali t becomes clear later in the series that while Actives at t possible to wipe a human brain clean (not unlike a computer hard drive) and later ies. The reverse playback of memories is a visual representation of the extraction process, which leaves he female Active in what the show calls a doll state. This is a state of immense vulnerability, as all critical sense and personality is stripped from the individual, eaving the Active with only a basic set of skills that allows them to function and interact with staff and other Actives until they are imprinted again for a new task. he Los Angeles Dollhouse are in a doll state, they—like Echo—are all named after letters in the NATO alphabet.

Aamodt and Wang cite the 2004 feature film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as an example of a fictional narrative that, like Dollhouse, works with the premise that scientists are able to remove specific memories. Other examples of popular media products that operate with the trope of removing and/or implanting memories include Total Recall (1990), Men in Black (1997) and Dark City (1998). In real life, selective memory alteration might be useful in treating afflictions like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).’ However, work in this field currently involves cognitive therapy and/or medicinal treatment rather than the type of outright electronic mindwipes common to fictional narratives. Figure 2: The mind wipe is underway: the technology used to wipe minds in Dollhouse is wireless and physically non-invasive. This becomes an important plot point later in the series, as the technology is weaponized. See Dollhouse, Season 1. Episode 1: ‘Ghost”. First broadcast 13 February 2009.

It is worth noting that the predictions of the interviewee actually come to fruition later in the show. As mentioned previously, Topher Brink is manipulated into creating a ranged weapon for wiping brains, which is then further developed into a mass-dispersal mechanism that wreaks havoc globally. Figure 3: Expert being interviewed about the implications of the rumoured brain wiping technology of the Dollhouse. See Do//house, Season 1, Episode 6: ‘Man on the Street”. First broadcast 20 March 2009. later in the show. As mentioned previously, Topher Brink is manipulated into While Topher is portrayed as self-important and amoral for much of the show, his personality gradually changes. At the end of the series he has actually developed a strong moral centre, in part as a result of realising that his actions have been instrumental in throwing the world into chaos. In the final episode of the show, Topher ends up sacrificing himself in order to deploy a new invention that can destroy the mass mind-wiping technology and restore those afflicted to their former selves.

A Method for Studying Popular Neuroimaging Figure 1 & 2: The vignette to Human Brain (1983) and Brain Story (2004) producec by British Broadcasting Corporation in London. Looking at the background we can see that there are some differences’. In Human Brain the background is a silhouet- te of a head, but in Brain Story this has changed to a scanning image of a brain in an aesthetically appealing yellow colour. This latter figure is an example of popular neuroimaging and how scanning imagery is used to capture viewers’ attention. this article, we bring together these cultural perspectives on neuroscience with a more critical disability perspective (e.g. Campbell 2008, Jordan 2014, Altermark 2018), by analysing popular science documentary series from the 1980s along with more recent series. In doing so, we want to add another layer to the discussion concerning cultural perspectives on neuroscience and popular neuroimaging. The aim is to analyse popular neuroimaging of the (dis)able(d) brain as a cultural phenomenon, as well as to explore how there has been, during the last decades, a subtle but important change in the way the “normal” brain is depicted in popular science.

Figure 3: A screenshot from Brain Story (2004, BBC) and the first episode “All in the Mind”, where the neurologist John Hodges is interviewed in front of a large amount of brain scanning images. This background is supposed to give the viewers a contextualisation of the milieu Hodges works in. The Brain as a Story in a Popular Science Documentary

Figure 4: This is a common illustration of the brain in the popular science documen- tary series Human Brain (1983, BBC). Compared to representations of scanning techniques in the more recent documentary series Brain Story, this illustration does not have the same scientific authority, since it cannot be used by medical expertise to reveal “secrets” within the visualisation. Brain Images and the Human Brain in the 1980s RAMEN DA Sy LU ALINE V¥ LiCl VL LIL AGA LI USbhd LY UULULLTILIIIIY It do 110i tid lO LIN VEL VAP ADIL te As mentioned, previous research has pointed out how this manner of presenting brain scans as a kind of p hotographic snapshot provides the general public with an inaccurate impression of the capacity of scanning techniques (cf. Dumit 2004, Abi-Rached & Rose 2010). While the framing of brain scanning techniques as a way of “seeing” an individ ual’s feelings, experiences or characteristics may be an intriguing narrative within popular media, it also has problematic consequences for the discursive logic o visualized and narratively f the (dis)able(d) brain. In Brain Story, Sines’ brain is defined as different. In this way, the brain becomes an object of ontological difference, placed in an evaluative ranking of other (dis) able(d) brains. This is an example of the strategy Fiona Kumari Campbell (2008) calls sameness, and that leads us to a form of “violence of normalization” where popular neuroimaging cla brains” (Dumit 2004). ims to enable a distinction between different “kinds of

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Das Auge des Algorithmus: Anthropozän und die Entstehung des Weltgehirns

by Matteo Pasquinelli

2016

(Abstract in English). A new planetary scale of computation demands a new planetary scale of politics. As the current debate on the Anthropocene points too, no political agency is possible without the recognition of a new cognitive... more

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Can Psychology Become Science about Psyche?

by Alexander Zelitchenko

2015

The scientific psychology came to the level of its own development when a natural interpretation of some phenomena of mind demands the crucial revision not only philosophical foundations of the psychology itself but also ones of the... more

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2008 World Brain as EarthGame (Chapter)

by Robert D Steele

2014

As published in COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace, edited by Mark Tovey.

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World Brain

Key research themes

1. How has the concept of a World Brain evolved and what are its implications for global knowledge organization and governance?

2. What are the sociotechnical and ethical challenges of managing brain data within the emerging Global Brain framework?

3. How do neuroscientific and cognitive models of brain function inform the Global Brain metaphor and its applications in cultural and social contexts?

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