Book Review: Global Brain

Global Brain: The Evolution of the Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century by Howard Bloom is a well-written book, but the problem I have with it is that there are too many ‘mechanical’ or ‘computerized’ analogies in the book — and I think that these analogies lead the thinking (and understanding) in the wrong direction. The Global Brain, or Mass Mind, is NOT a Computer. And I don’t think that “swarms of nanocomputerized bacteria“, used as “exploratory engines“, are a “giant leap for all mankind” (p.223). They might actually become a mega-nightmare! Maybe we aren’t the “neurons of this planet’s interspecies mind” (p.223), but its cancer cells? It depends on whether we can overcome the hubris of our engineering minds.