Dana Klisanin

Choice Words: An Integral Exploration of Signifers Being Used to Reference Global Interconnectedness

Abstact:

The transdisciplinary method of Integral Methodological Pluralism is used to explore the signifiers being used to reference the totality of our interconnectedness with information and communication technologies (ICTs) and the emergent global consciousness arising from/within it, e.g., global brain, superoganism, noosphere, worldwide network, Gaia, et. The research explores the implications and potential consequences of the signifiers. Do the terms expand or limit our thinking and/or that of future generations? For example, although pioneering theorists, Teilhard de Chardin [1,2] and Peter Russell, [3] included higher forms of human consciousness and/or spirituality, as integral to their work (and Russell himself coined the term “global brain”), the brain represents an exterior, objective structure, and as such, does not speak to interior, subjective processes. [4] As words are the primary means through which we co-create, share, and transmit reality, through continuing to use (and thus promote) the term “global brain,” are we diminishing humanity’s potential to enlarge, grow, and/or expand its capacity for collective compassion and/or other higher values, i.e., through omitting them from the signifier? Can we reduce Chardin’s noosphere or the Greek νοῦς (nous “mind”) to the brain? Does such a reduction not inadvertently perpetuate outdated reductionistic frameworks that demoted and/or stymied intuitive, emotional, and compassionate forms of knowing? Will humanity meet the challenges confronting the global community now and in the future with a Global Brain, or even a Global Intelligence, that does not have a metaphorical “heart” with which to care for the Other.