World Brain by Hg Wells

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World Brain by Hg Wells

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World Brain by Hg Wells

In 1937, H. G. Wells proposed a predigital, freely available World Encyclopedia to represent a civilization-saving World Brain.

In a series of talks and essays in 1937, H. G. Wells proselytized for what he called a World Brain, as manifested in a World Encyclopedia--a repository of scientifically established knowledge--that would spread enlightenment around the world and lead to world peace. Wells, known to readers today as the author of The War of the Worlds and other science fiction classics, was imagining something like a predigital Wikipedia. The World Encyclopedia would provide a summary of verified reality (in about forty volumes); it would be widely available, free of copyright, and utilize the latest technology.

Of course, as Bruce Sterling points out in the foreword to this edition of Wells's work, the World Brain didn't happen; the internet did. And yet, Wells anticipated aspects of the internet, envisioning the World Brain as a technical system of networked knowledge (in Sterling's words, a hypothetical super-gadget). Wells's optimism about the power of information might strike readers today as na vely utopian, but possibly also inspirational.

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SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9780262542562
ISBN 10 0262542560
Title World Brain
Author Hg Wells
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Paperback
Publisher MIT Press Ltd
Year published 2021-08-03
Number of pages 176
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note Unavailable