Editing World Brain (section)

==== From World Library to World Brain ====
In his 1962 book ''Profiles of the Future'', [[Arthur C. Clarke]] predicted that the construction of what H. G. Wells called the World Brain would take place in two stages. He identified the first stage as the construction of the ''World Library'', which is basically Wells's concept of a universal encyclopaedia accessible to everyone from their home on [[computer terminal]]s. He predicted this phase would be established (at least in the [[developed countries]]) by the year 2000. The second stage, the ''World Brain'', would be a [[Superintelligence|superintelligent]] [[Artificial intelligence|artificially intelligent]] [[supercomputer]] that humans would be able to mutually interact with to solve various world problems. The "World Library" would be incorporated into the "World Brain" as a subsection of it. He suggested that this supercomputer should be installed in the former [[war room]]s of the United States and the [[Soviet Union]] once the superpowers had matured enough to agree to co-operate rather than conflict with each other. Clarke predicted the construction of the "World Brain" would be completed by the year 2100.<ref>[[Arthur C. Clarke|Clarke, Arthur C.]] ''Profiles of the Future; an Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible''. New York: Harper & Row, 1962</ref>{{Request quotation|date=November 2010}}

In 1964, [[Eugene Garfield]] published an article in the journal ''[[Science (journal)|Science]]'' introducing the [[Science Citation Index]]; the article's first sentence invoked Wells's "magnificent, if premature, plea for the establishment of a world information center", and Garfield predicted that the Science Citation Index "is a harbinger of things to come—a forerunner of the World Brain".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Garfield |first=Eugene |author-link=Eugene Garfield |date=May 1964 |title=Science Citation Index—a new dimension in indexing |journal=[[Science (journal)|Science]] |volume=144 |issue=3619 |pages=649–654 |doi=10.1126/science.144.3619.649 |jstor=1712875 |pmid=17806988 |bibcode=1964Sci...144..649G |url=http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/essays/v7p525y1984.pdf}}</ref>