There is no more a collective brain than there is a collective stomach that will sustain me because my neighbors eat. History, reality, and the facts that pertain to them disprove this idea of a collective brain with brutality. Of course knowledge gets shared and individuals build on it, but some individuals build on it to an extent infinitely more immense than others, and it is the product of that individual and his choice to use his own mind. Thinking is not automatic. It must be engaged. It takes a lot of effort. Only the individual can do so.
This is extremely well written. I envy the craftsmanship!
Biological evolution gave us the cognitive hardware to pass information from one generation to the next without having to wait for genetics to do it.
This “cultural evolution” went into overdrive as we urbanized, giving rise to what I call the “social supercomputer.”
Same idea: https://www.lianeon.org/p/the-social-supercomputer
There is no more a collective brain than there is a collective stomach that will sustain me because my neighbors eat. History, reality, and the facts that pertain to them disprove this idea of a collective brain with brutality. Of course knowledge gets shared and individuals build on it, but some individuals build on it to an extent infinitely more immense than others, and it is the product of that individual and his choice to use his own mind. Thinking is not automatic. It must be engaged. It takes a lot of effort. Only the individual can do so.