Title: The singularity and H.G. Wells's conception of the world brain
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2020, vol. 46, iss. 1, pp. 229-241
Extent
229-241
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2020-1-11
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/142609
Type: Article
Language
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
Prescience allowed H. G. Wells to predict the outbreak of WWII and anticipate modern technologies, such as the aeroplane, the tank, the atomic bomb, the laser beam, and biological engineering. This article explores Wells's prefiguration of the singularity in the shape of the world brain. In both his fiction and journalism, Wells invests in vast political and social transformations, which precede the emergence of a knowledge infrastructure whose universal availability purports to transcend national, racial, gender, and socioeconomic boundaries. Contextualized alongside present-day concerns about exclusion, the world brain offers a critical model for circumventing the singularity as a dystopian prospect.
References
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[4] James, Simon J. (2016) The Worlds of H. G. Wells. In: Kiser, Barbara (ed.) H. G. Wells and Nature. Macmillan Publishers, 6–8.
[5] Kurzweil, Ray (2006) The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology. New York: Penguin.
[6] Outline of Wikipedia (2019) Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, Wikimedia Foundation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outline_of_Wikipedia. Accessed on 10 June 2019.
[7] Parrinder, Patrick (1995) Shadows of the Future: H. G. Wells, Science Fiction and Prophecy. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
[8] Partington, John S. (2003) Building Cosmopolis: The Political Thought of H. G. Wells. Aldershot: Ashgate.
[9] Rayward, W. Boyd (1999) H. G. Wells's Idea of a World Brain: A Critical Re-Assessment. Journal of the American Society for Information Science 50 (7), 557–573. | DOI 10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(1999)50:7<557::AID-ASI2>3.0.CO;2-M
[10] Reagle, Joseph Michael (2010) Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia, foreword by Lawrence Lessig. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT.
[11] Shadurski, Maxim (2020) The Nationality of Utopia: H. G. Wells, England, and the World State. London: Routledge.
[12] Tkacz, Nathaniel (2015) Wikipedia and the Politics of Openness. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
[13] Wagar, W. Warren (1961) H. G. Wells and the World State. New Haven: Yale University Press.
[14] Wells, H. G. (1926) The World of William Clissold: A Novel at a New Angle. London: Ernest Benn.
[15] Wells, H. G. (1928) The Open Conspiracy: Blue Prints for a World Revolution. London: Victor Gollancz.
[16] Wells, H. G. (1929) Imperialism and the Open Conspiracy. London: Faber and Faber.
[17] Wells, H. G. (1932) The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind. London: William Heinemann.
[18] Wells, H. G. (1934) Experiment in Autobiography: Discoveries and Conclusions of a Very Ordinary Brain (since 1866), in 2 volumes. London: Victor Gollancz and The Cresset Press.
[19] Wells, H. G. (1937) The Camford Visitation. London: Methuen.
[20] Wells, H. G. (1938) World Brain. London: Methuen.
[21] Wells, H. G. (1967) A Modern Utopia, introduction by Mark R. Hillegas. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
[22] Wells, H. G. (1999) Anticipations of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress Upon Human Life and Thought, introduction by Martin Gardner. Mineola, NY: Dover.
[23] Wells, H. G. (2010) The War of the Worlds. In: H. G. Wells: Classic Collection I, London: Gollancz, 203–364.
[24] Wells, H. G. (2011a) Men Like Gods. In: H. G. Wells: Classic Collection II. London: Gollancz, 203–410.
[25] Wells, H. G. (2011b) The Shape of Things to Come. London: Gollancz.
[26] Wells, H. G. (2011c) The War in the Air. In: H. G. Wells: Classic Collection II, London: Gollancz, 607–840.
[27] Wells, H. G. (2019) As I See It. BBC Archive, BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/as-i-seeit--hg-wells/zhq9scw. Accessed on 10 June 2019.
[28] Wells, H. G., Julian Huxley, and G. P. Wells (1931) The Science of Life. London: Cassell.
[29] Wraith, Matthew (2016) Organism and Superorganism: Entomology and Collective Consciousness in H. G. Wells. The Wellsian: The Journal of the H. G. Wells Society 39, 6–26.
[30] Žižek, Slavoj (2016) Against the Double Blackmail: Refugees, Terror and Other Troubles with the Neighbours. London: Allen Lane.