GLOBAL BRAIN

The author postulates that all creatures are parts of a worldwide “learning machine” that has evolved since the beginning of the universe.

Bloom (The Lucifer Principle, 1995) begins by proclaiming that a networked global brain has existed for over three billion years. Dismissing the proponents of individual selection as “blind keepers of an outworn scientific creed,” he proceeds to make the case for group selection. The case requires a considerable leap of faith. Few physicists will agree with his description of the formation of matter in the early moments of the universe as a voluntary coming together of the elementary particles to create a whole greater than the sum of their parts. Still, if one accepts that premise, it is a short step to the idea that pre-Cambrian cyanobacteria clumping together in large formations (stromatolites) were communal brains of a sort. As Bloom moves up the paleontological ladder toward the present, he finds evidence of mass mind at every step. Examples include colonies of cells that vary between sexual and asexual reproduction depending on food supply, octopi that learn from observing the reactions of others, and that favorite model of communal life, the beehive. Along the way, he finds a fair number of intriguing patterns: communal groups include both conformity enforcers and diversity generators, as well as mechanisms for shifting resources to successful innovators. The author is on firmest ground in his application of these models to human societies: for example, almost everyone must have noticed how vicious teenagers can be in enforcing conformity. He is adept at finding historical episodes that illustrate his points, although his claims to have overthrown accepted evolutionary theory appear to be little more than self-congratulation.

Full of interesting, often useful insights, but the author’s straining for universal significance seems hubristic. Take with several grains of salt.