H.G. Wells's idea of a world brain: A critical reassessment

Journal/Book: J Amer Soc Inform Sci. 1999; 50: 605 Third Ave, New York, NY 10158-0012, USA. John Wiley & Sons Inc. 557-573.

Abstract: What exactly are the Wellsian World Brain or World Encyclopaedia ideas to which reference is so often made? What did they mean for Wells? What might they mean for us? This article examines closely what Wells says about them in his book, World Brain (1938), and in a number of works that elaborate what is expressed there. The article discusses aspects of the context within which Wells's conception of a new world encyclopaedia organization was formulated and its role in the main thrust of his thought. The article argues that Wells's ideas about a World Brain are embedded in a structure of thought that may be shown to entail on the one hand notions of social repression and control that must give us pause, and on the other a concept of the nature and organization of knowledge that may well be no longer acceptable. By examining Wells's ideas in some detail and attempting to articulate the systems of belief which shaped them and which otherwise lie silent beneath them, the author hopes to provoke questions about current theorizing about the nature of global information systems and emergent intelligence.

Note: Article Rayward WB, Univ New S Wales, Sch Informat Lib & Archive Studies, Sydney, NSW 2051, AUSTRALIA

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