It's the Noosphere, Not the Metaverse

Yes, the word Metaverse has a definition that is grounded in computer simulation and virtual and gaming worlds. It could only be a name for the future that a coder or gamer might use, but humanity is a much larger data set.

While coders, gamers, programmers, AR and VR geeks and computer nerds might relish the term Metaverse, it is way too restrictive. Futurists, evolutionary biologists and integral spiritualists all understand that where we are headed is a much bigger place. A place of geological, biological, humanistic, technological, mental and spiritual integration.

Humanity’s next reality, next media, next truly connected world and place of neurological connectedness is a much more massive next step in human evolution.

Noosphere / Evolutionshift

The first manuscript of what became my first book, The Shift Age, was titled Evolutionshift. In the early part of this century, that name didn’t seem to resonate with publishers or almost anyone else. So, I changed the name of the book but have used that name for my blog, my YouTube channel, and my handle on Twitter.

Why? Shortly after my first book came out and I had fully started my career as a full-time professional futurist, I read The Phenomenon of Man by Teilhard de Chardin. It blew me away! Here was a magnificently written vision of the future, written by a man who died shortly before I was born and whose vision, while similar, was a loftier, more spiritual one than mine. As one who has primarily spoken to business groups and got the nickname "the CEO's futurist," I felt that the profound spiritual message of de Chardin’s Noosphere might be a bit too far. So, I altered the name and started to speak and write about the Neurosphere [making up terms is one of the things we futurists do], the rapidly increasing, synaptic, technological interconnectedness of humanity. It was a more understandable and accessible name, as it described the growing Internet as a nervous system.

In recent columns here, I have acknowledged that reading McLuhan, Toffler and Fuller are foundational to my thinking and, in fact, part of the pathway to becoming a futurist. To these names, I add Teilhard de Chardin, the great philosopher-paleontologist-Jesuit priest who lived and wrote in the first half of the 20th century.

Teilhard de Chardin was a renaissance man. He was a Jesuit priest and great paleontologist. He co-discovered the celebrated "Peking Man" fossils. Then he wrote The Phenomenon of Man, named "the best spiritual book of the 20^th Century." He died in 1955, so it was only after his death that the Jesuits allowed his books to be published posthumously. A Jesuit priest who, though he couldn’t possibly have named the Internet, foresaw it coming into existence. As I said, reading him blew me away.

The Noosphere is the next evolutionary step for planet Earth. First, there was the geological, then the biological, then the human population explosion and the resulting technology we created. The geosphere came first with the physical planet. The biosphere came second, living off the natural resources of the geosphere. The third stage is the Noosphere. We are on a rapid approach.

Instead of this computer and code-constrained Metaverse, we are at the beginning of the Noosphere.

I have yet to speak with a futurist, thought leader or CEO who is comfortable with the term Metaverse. It feels as though MSM [Mainstream Media] and the blogosphere are using the term somewhat mindlessly and without understanding, insight or passion.

The terms Evolutionshift and Noosphere are different but similar in the vision of the next big evolutionary step for the planet and humanity. Through the coming weeks, I will explore where we are: the beginning of the Noosphere.

Noosphere: Definitions and Notations

The sphere of human consciousness and mental activity, especially in regard to its influence on the biosphere and in relation to evolution. -- Merriam-Webster

The biosphere, including and modified by such human activities as agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, urbanization and industrialization. -- Dictionary.com

The Noosphere (alternate spelling Noösphere) is a philosophical concept developed and popularized by the Russian-Ukrainian Soviet biogeochemist Vladimir Vernadsky, and the French philosopher and Jesuit priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Vernadsky defined the Noosphere as the new state of the biosphere[1] and described as the planetary "sphere of reason".[2][3] The Noosphere represents the highest stage of biospheric development, that of humankind's rational activities.[4]

The word is derived from the Greek νόος ("mind", "reason") and σφαῖρα ("sphere"), in lexical analogy to "atmosphere" and "biosphere".[5] The concept cannot be accredited to a single author. The founding authors Vernadsky and de Chardin developed two related but starkly different concepts, the former grounded in the geological sciences, and the latter in theology. Both conceptions of the noosphere share the common thesis that together human reason and the scientific thought has created, and will continue to create, the next evolutionary geological layer.

In the theory of Vernadsky, the noosphere is the third in a succession of phases of development of the Earth, after the geosphere (inanimate matter) and the biosphere (biological life). Just as the emergence of life fundamentally transformed the geosphere, the emergence of human cognition fundamentally transforms the biosphere. In contrast to the conceptions of the Gaia theorists, or the promoters of cyberspace, Vernadsky's noosphere emerges at the point where humankind, through the mastery of nuclear processes, begins to create resources through the transmutation of elements. It is a study area of the Global Consciousness Project.[19]

For de Chardin, the noosphere emerges through and is constituted by the interaction of human minds. The noosphere has grown in step with the organization of the human mass in relation to itself as it populates the Earth. As mankind organizes itself in more complex social networks, the higher the noosphere will grow in awareness. This concept extends Teilhard's Law of Complexity/Consciousness, the law describing the nature of evolution in the universe. Teilhard argued the noosphere is growing towards an even greater integration and unification, culminating in the Omega Point - an apex of thought/consciousness - which he saw as the goal of history. -- Wikipedia

The Noosphere is the sphere of thought enveloping the Earth. The word comes from the Greek noos (mind) and sphaira (sphere). The Noosphere is the third stage of Earth’s development, after the geosphere (think rocks, water, and air) and the biosphere (all the living things). The three spheres build on each other: For example, life in the biosphere needs the geosphere to survive (matter, water, and air), and thinking needs to be embodied in the biosphere, via the living brains of human beings and our technology. So the Noosphere can be seen as the rise of a planetary superorganism integrating all geological, biological, human, and technological activities into a new level of planetary functioning. --HumanEnergy.io

Self-published at MediaVillage through the www.AvrioB2B.com platform.

Click the social buttons to share this content with your friends and colleagues.

The opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author and/or subject(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.com/MyersBizNet, Inc. management or associated writers.