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The Future Internet as a Global Brain:

an update of the theory

Francis Heylighen

Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group

Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Definition of the Global Brain

Global system of collective intelligence/distributed cognition

Capable of information-processing, problem-solving, decision-

making

Network of connections between human and artificial agents

Supported by the Internet

Becomes every year more encompassing and more intelligent

On the verge of a metasystem transition

To an inconceivably large intelligence

“Singularity”

=> Nervous system for the planetary superorganism

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The basic analogy

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History of Global Brain Research 19th century

Emile Durkheim, Herbert Spencer– society as organism– “collective consciousness”– No clear structure for social “nervous system” yet

First half 20th century

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: – “noosphere” = planetary layer of thoughts and communications

Paul Otlet: – Belgian founder of information science– Envisaged web-like organization of all knowledge

H.G. Wells: – “World Brain” = global institution to gather and publicize all

knowledge

1945-1995

Vannevar Bush (1945), Douglas Engelbart (1960), Ted Nelson (1974):

Hypermedia =– Documents connected by direct, associative links

– External memory

Tim Berners-Lee (1991):

hypermedia + internet = world-wide web

Documents can reside in different locations

Peter Russell (1982), Joël de Rosnay (1989), Gottfried Mayer-Kress (1995):

global brain emerging from the internet

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Hypermedia: links between documents

Our p lans are going ahead, Heylighen is getting tickets, so let's putthat in in hard pencil, but keep your eraser handy a ll the same. My life isreal ly hectic, and I won 't be in a sane place ti ll mid-April . We'll p indown the detai ls later, but a t this po int we were considering Val only tota lk on "The Metasystem Transition as the Quantum of Evolution". Th is isthe theoretical base to the PCP, which I described the form of in my ta lkto WESS. It's basica lly between Francis and Val how would like to talk, orboth, or what.

Our p lans are going ahead, Heylighen is getting tickets, so let's putthat in in hard pencil, but keep your eraser handy a ll the same. My life isreal ly hectic, and I won 't be in a sane place ti ll mid-April . We'll p indown the detai ls later, but a t this po int we were considering Val only tota lk on "The Metasystem Transition as the Quantum of Evolution". Th is isthe theoretical base to the PCP, which I described the form of in my ta lkto WESS. It's basica lly between Francis and Val how would like to talk, orboth, or what.

Our p lans are going ahead, Heylighen is getting tickets, so let's putthat in in hard pencil, but keep your eraser handy a ll the same. My life isreal ly hectic, and I won 't be in a sane place ti ll mid-April . We'll p indown the detai ls later, but a t this po int we were considering Val only tota lk on "The Metasystem Transition as the Quantum of Evolution". Th is isthe theoretical base to the PCP, which I described the form of in my ta lkto WESS. It's basica lly between Francis and Val how would like to talk, orboth, or what.

Our plans are go ing ahead, Heylighen is getting tickets, so le t' s putthat in in hard pencil , but keep your eraser handy all the same. My li fe isrea lly hectic, and I won't be in a sane place till mid-Apri l. We'l l pindown the deta ils la ter, but at this poin t we were considering Val only totalk on "The Metasystem Transi tion as the Quantum of Evolution". This isthe theoretical base to the PCP, which I described the form of in my talkto WESS. It's basically between Francis and Val how would like to talk, orboth, or what.

Our p lans are going ahead, Heylighen is getting tickets, so let's putthat in in hard pencil, but keep your eraser handy a ll the same. My life isreal ly hectic, and I won 't be in a sane place ti ll mid-April . We'll p indown the detai ls later, but a t this po int we were considering Val only tota lk on "The Metasystem Transition as the Quantum of Evolution". Th is isthe theoretical base to the PCP, which I described the form of in my ta lkto WESS. It's basica lly between Francis and Val how would like to talk, orboth, or what.

Our p lans are going ahead, Heylighen is getting tickets, so let's putthat in in hard pencil, but keep your eraser handy a ll the same. My life isreal ly hectic, and I won 't be in a sane place ti ll mid-April . We'll p indown the detai ls later, but a t this po int we were considering Val only tota lk on "The Metasystem Transition as the Quantum of Evolution". Th is isthe theoretical base to the PCP, which I described the form of in my ta lkto WESS. It's basica lly between Francis and Val how would like to talk, orboth, or what.

Our p lans are going ahead, Heylighen is getting tickets, so let's putthat in in hard pencil, but keep your eraser handy a ll the same. My life isreal ly hectic, and I won 't be in a sane place ti ll mid-April . We'll p indown the detai ls later, but a t this po int we were considering Val only tota lk on "The Metasystem Transition as the Quantum of Evolution". Th is isthe theoretical base to the PCP, which I described the form of in my ta lkto WESS. It's basica lly between Francis and Val how would like to talk, orboth, or what.

Our p lans are going ahead, Heyl ighen is getting tickets, so let's putthat in in hard pencil, but keep your eraser handy all the same. My li fe

Our p lans are going ahead, Heylighen is getting tickets, so let's putthat in in hard pencil, but keep your eraser handy a ll the same. My life isreal ly hectic, and I won 't be in a sane place ti ll mid-April . We'll p indown the detai ls later, but a t this po int we were considering Val only

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Web as “Neural” Network

The web links mutually relevant information through “hyperlinks”.

This is analogous to the way the brain links concepts by associations, and the corresponding assemblies of neurons by synapses.

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The Principia Cybernetica community

Valentin Turchin (1970):

Cybernetic analysis of intelligence and neural networks

metasystem transition towards “super-being”

Principia Cybernetica Project

Created in 1989 by Turchin and Cliff Joslyn– Joined in 1990 by Francis Heylighen

To develop Turchin’s theory of evolutionary cybernetics

While using the collaborative tools of hypermedia and internet

Website created in 1993 by Heylighen

Heylighen & Johan Bollen (1995):

learning and “thinking” website -> brain-like abilities

Global Brain Group founded by Heylighen & Ben Goertzel in 1996

First workshop in 2001

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Global Brain research: 2000s

Hectic explosion of the internet

Billions of people joining

Proliferation of mutually incompatible systems

“Web 2.0”

Focus on collaborative development

In fact already part of “Web 1.0”

Global Brain idea shifts to the background

Principia Cybernetica and Global Brain group increasingly less active

Because of illness and other obligations

Tim O’ Reilly, Yuri Milner (2011):

new interest in the Global Brain vision

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Growth of the Internet

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ECCO

Research group directed by Francis Heylighen International, interdisciplinary Founded in 2004 at the VUB Present membership:

– about 10 core

– about 20 affiliated

Main research subjects Self-organization, especially:

– of distributed intelligence

– of coordinated action Extending Turchin’s evolutionary cybernetics With lots of applications on the web But no explicit focus on the global brain

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ECCO results: Theory

Action ontology

Life as an adventure

Coordination of agents via

Stigmergy

Connectionist networks

Propagation of challenges

Resolves a wide variety of conceptual problems in

complexity science

cognitive science

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ECCO results: some web applications

Hebbian learning of web links

SNURF: intelligent propagation of messages across a social

network,

Smartocracy: voting network for democratic decision-making

Gnowsys: conceptual network for knowledge organization and

education

Teacherplex: website that stimulates students to learn new

material via multiple choice questions

a formalism and set of algorithms for intelligent reasoning

across distributed knowledge networks

Stigmergic University: a proposal to integrate these different

technologies in order to create a “World Brain”

Creation of a Global Brain Institute

Yuri Milner

Web billionaire, investor in Facebook, Twitter, Groupon…

Independently came to the Global Brain concept

September 2011: meeting of Milner and Heylighen

Milner wants to sponsor Heylighen’s research on the GB

Heylighen proposes to create a GB Institute at the VUB

Milner agrees to provide funding for at least 5 years– Enough to employ about half a dozen PhD researchers

– Focus on developing a mathematical theory of the GB

GBI should start in January 2012

And should get first major results by 2014

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Foundations for a Global Brain theory

Both people and machines are agents

They perform actions in response to challenges

Challenge = information suggesting that action would improve the situation

Pragmatically meaningful information

Examples of a challenge: – problem, question, task, opportunity, proposal, danger…

Challenges stimulate agents to act

Ability to tackle challenges (solving problems) = intelligence

Different agents collaboratively tackling challenges →

Distributed or collective intelligence

Challenges are passed on from agent to agent

In parallel and in sequence

While being processed

Mechanism

Challenge → action → changed situation → new challenge → new

action →… → final solution

Example: message → forward → reply → reply to the reply →… →

agreement

Similar to information processing in the brain

Spreading activation = activation passed on from neuron to neuron

along synapses

“activation” = condition that makes a neuron “act”

Propagation of Challenges

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Propagation of challenges in organization

input

output

Self-organizing propagation of challenges

No fixed “flowchart”

Challenges can propagate freely

Variation and selection dynamics

challenge stimulates action → undergoes variation

Variation stops when situation is no longer challenging

“Solved” challenges are selectively retained– Attractor of the dynamics

“Unsolved” ones continue to undergo variation– Basin leading into attractor

Friction and synergy

Actions/agents can be in conflict

Action of A perturbs effect of action of B

= Friction between A and B

→ continued variation as A counteracts B’s action, and B

counteracts A, etc.

Variation stops as compromise or win-win situation is reached

Actions/agents can be synergetic

Together they achieve more than the sum of their indivodual

achievements: win-win

This situation is preferentially retained → selection

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Example: Wikipedia

Nearly empty page on topic → challenges reader to expand text

Revised text challenges further readers to

correct/ add/ improve

Coordinated Action

Different people collaborate efficiently on the

page

Without even knowing each other

Conflicts are eventually solved

Propagation of challenges → self-organization of collective intelligence

Requires propagation medium

Where challenges are registered for others to

see

Here: Wikipedia website

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Example : Social network

People connect to their “friends”

Friends automatically see messages (“challenges”) left by their

connections

They may forward these messages to other friends (propagation)

Important or popular messages may thus selectively spread through

the network

This system can be much improved

Different types of connections, e.g. – Friends vs. acquaintances

– “Circles” of interest (Google+)

Different strengths of connections– People you know better or less well

This would allow a much more intelligent, automatic propagation

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The network of Facebook

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Improving propagation

Self-organization and therefore coordination can be facilitated

Better medium

Faster

more robust and reliable

easier to edit

More intuitive

more available…

Reaching more agents

More efficient network

Learning the most important connections, their strengths and

their types

So that challenges can be propagated to the most appropriate

targets

Automatic propagation

E.g. using spreading activation algorithms + particle

grammars

This would produce a much more intelligent propagation of “thoughts” in the global brain

Directed propagation

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Mobilization systems

Making challenges more pleasurable

“flow” = full absorption in activity, if: – Clear goals

– Immediate feedback

– Challenges in balance with skills

Applied implicitly in gaming environments– The activity is so satisfying that it becomes addictive

Other motivating principles– utility, altruism, authority, incentives, conformity…

Motivation + Coordination = mobilization of action

Making people collaborate productively and joyfully

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Ambient Intelligence

Internet of things

Not only people but a variety of devices are connected into

the global brain

E.g. sensors, vehicles, thermostats, machines, robots, ovens,

…

Agents can react “intelligently” to physical challenges

Such artificial agents too must be coordinated

E.g. via stigmergy or the propagation of “particles”

Coordinated artificial and human agents

→ intelligent environment

E.g. to promote health, sustainability, efficiency, security, …

Mining Meaning 28

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Towards a theory of the global brain Basic paradigm: Self-organizing propagation of challenges

Abstract, “ontological” framework

applicable to all types of agents, actions and communications

Allows mathematical formalization– E

.g. via complex dynamic systems or connectionist networks

In practice, mathematical models are best explored through simulation

Typically too complex for analytic treatment

Allows exploring a variety of parameter settings, initial conditions, architectures, and effects of random perturbations

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Towards a theory of the global brain

An abstract theory must be connected to reality

tested with empirical data– E.g. analysis of data about communication patterns in Facebook

Applied in practical situations– E.g. experiments with prototype applications

The theory must explain observed phenomena

It must connect to concrete developments– Social movements

– New technologies

– Economic pressures

– Legal constraints

– Ethical and political considerations…

Mining Meaning 31

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What is needed

Developing a global brain theory requires highly qualified researchers

Keeping informed of all potentially relevant developments

Collaborating closely on the theory – face-to-face – Via stigmergic and other technologies

Need for coordination

Alignment: agreement on the target: GBI theory

Division of Labor: who does what?

Workflow: efficient interaction between researchers

Aggregation: integrating the fragments into a whole

Regulation: checking whether things move in the right direction

Mining Meaning 33

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Conclusion

The ECCO research group (the future Global Brain Institute) has the necessary expertise to develop a deep and comprehensive theory of the global brain

Based on the paradigm of self-organizing propagation of

challenges

However, this will require:

A further clarification of the fundamental concepts

A sustained, focused effort

A good method of coordination

openness to the world and what happens there