An atlas of functional anatomy allows the physiologist and physician to map, and therefore more completely understand, the organization of biological tissue, organs and systems. But imagine creating an atlas for a novel organism - how can one know how a particular component or connection is functionally organized? Of course, this is the work of the biologist: to study, map and characterize anatomy in the context of function. The biologist must define the critical categories. That is the goal of our mapping project - to categorize the functional anatomy of the noosphere.
Is the noosphere an organism? A superorganism? Or a global brain? By asking these questions we’ve begun to realize that the noosphere is unlike any organism or brain we are familiar with. And yet, the terminology of organisms and brains is helpful for describing the anatomy and physiology of the noosphere. Yes, it’s a “brain.” But it’s not like a brain dependent on glucose and blood flow. And it’s certainly not a computer running on electricity and fossil fuels. The global brain operates on the energy of humanity itself: not only the power of our technology, goods and services, but the movement of ideas, our values and ethics. That is, the global brain functions on the spread of human ideas and their significance, meaning and value to collective humanity. And it depends on the anatomical body of humanity and our technology. By examining and mapping these processes simultaneously, we’ve been able to see how the noosphere functions at a planetary scale.
This far, our team at Human Energy has made several important discoveries about the functional anatomy of the noosphere:
1) How its body grows. Like an embryo, the noosphere is reaching a critical size in terms of total mass, population and connectivity. This growth, which accelerated in the 20th century, heralded a new geologic age on earth because of the impact of this body on the very structure of the planet itself. This age is known as the Anthropocene.
2) The nature of its physiology. All organisms combine signaling systems with metabolism in order to sustain, grow and develop. With new evolutionary advances, these systems have complexified and enabled novel functionality, including human consciousness. The physiology of the noosphere runs on the products and energy of human consciousness and its material and technological extensions.
3) The noosphere has a brain. Not all organisms have brains. But even unicellular bacteria must adapt to their environment, remember and pass on their knowledge. Since the dawn of language, humanity has stored information in technology for widespread distribution. With the birth of the internet and in particular, the cellular phone, we are connected to information on a planetary scale and to something that resembles a developing global brain.
These findings are derived from the five major component processes present in all living organisms: (1) the body of the organism, (2) synthesis of biological material (production), (3) extraction, storage and exchange of energy (metabolism), (4) systems for signaling (communication) and (5) systems for the storage and utilization of biological information (knowledge). These core processes are based on our Bio-Organon theory. To better understand how these 5 core processes operate, it is useful to characterize them into two critical and overarching “axes” that delineate the structure and function of organisms: 1. A structural ‘axis’ of anatomical development via production to sustain a body and its core components, guided by the knowledge of the organism 2. A functional ‘axis’ of physiology based on the dynamics of metabolism and communication, also guided by knowledge. All organisms combine these processes, and the noosphere is no different.