Reply from Mike Oldroyd to Robert Oveson:
Without trying to go too far down the road of the difference between
subconscious and conscious thought. We could view consciousness of this
world brain as an output from an individual or group of neurons that
themselves trigger sufficient other neurons that a coherent real world
model emerges. Any individual will contain aspects of this consciousness
but a global consciousness develops when modified versions of this
individual consciousness become held by a wide enough group of people.
Of of the defining characteristics of consciousness in an individual is
the ability to realise and review what we are thinking. For this to take
place, the “thought” must be held by a sufficient number of neurons for a
sufficient time to allow feedback and critical appraisal of the thought.
To this end, broadcast media are a major factor in the development of a
world consciousness as they allow individual thoughts to be massively
amplified, recorded and reviewed.
The internet is essentially a multicast rather than broadcast media, and
its increasing popularity could perhaps equate to a sudden increase in
the number of connections to a large number of neurons in the world
brain.
Increasing connections within a brain, tends to lead to increased variety
of thought, though a decreased quality of reasoning, as the connections
are initially untrained.
An important question we need to address is how the quality of thought by
the global brain can be best maintained when the quantity is increasing
so suddenly.