Global Brain Singularity

Reviews / Votes

"This book is an impressive piece of scholarship, integrating results from disciplines as diverse as history, cosmology, philosophy and economics in order to understand the changes in our present information society. These changes are so drastic that they point to a singularity, i.e. a discontinuous transition to a wholly different regime. The author lucidly reviews the main scenarios for this "singular" future that have been proposed by contemporary academics, pointing out their strengths and weaknesses." (Dr. Francis Heylighen, Cyberneticist and pioneer of the Global Brain concept) "Cadell Last's book is an impressive exploration of scientific, economic, social, political and psychological dimensions of the major transition we are living in. A must read for anybody interested in the future of humanity." (Dr. Clement Vidal, Philosopher and author of The Beginning and the End) "Cadell Last presents an ambitious take on the interrelation between several grandest themes of human theorising and does so with erudition and excellent style. Combining the conceptual frameworks of evolution, big history and psychoanalysis with futuristic metaphors of the Singularity and the Global Brain, he draws a line that connects the universe with the depth of the human mind, looping the latter as an increasinglypotent creator of the former. While this idea is perhaps easier understood in relation to the (human) mind, he adds the concept of the Global Brain to the picture, pointing to the entire web of the technologically mediated human interactions as the proper locus of the creative cognitive power in/of the universe." (Dr. Marta Lenartowicz, Social Scientist and director of the School of Thinking) "Cadell's book offers a valuable contribution both to the development of the general theory of social macroevolution and to the study of the 21st century singularity. It employs the big history perspective in a rather appropriate way. In addition to its profound scientific value the book is distinguished by a certain rather charming artistry." (Dr. Andrey Korotayev, Interdisciplinary Scientist and pioneer of World-Systems Theory) "It is not every day that one has the opportunity to delve into such thought-provoking piece of academic work. The author uses philosophy to explore and hopefully address past shortcomings in understanding the immanence of both humans beings and civilization. For such an understanding one needs to tackle reality as a whole, being willing to speculate and make daring conjectures. Cadell's work achieve this by analysing and exploring important scientific results and manages to better contextualize them within a big picture framework of evolution." (Dr. Alexandre Pais, Mathematician, Educator, and Scholar of Jacques Lacan)