Editing World Brain (section)

=== 1990s: World Wide Web of documents ===

==== World Wide Web as a World Brain ====
{{Main|World Wide Web}}

[[Brian R. Gaines]] in his 1996 paper "Convergence to the Information Highway" saw the [[World Wide Web]] as an extension of Wells's "World Brain" that individuals can access using personal computers.<ref>{{Cite conference | first = Brian R. | last = Gaines | author-link = Brian R. Gaines | title = Convergence to the Information Highway| book-title = Proceedings of the WebNet Conference| year = 1996| location = San Francisco| url = http://algo.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/bibliothek/proceedings/webnet96/Html/KGaines/Gaines.htm| access-date = 7 November 2009}}</ref> In papers published in 1996 and 1997 (that did not cite Wells), [[Francis Heylighen]] and [[Ben Goertzel]] envisaged the further development of the World Wide Web into a [[global brain]], i.e. an intelligent network of people and computers at the planetary level.<ref name=Rayward/>{{rp|558}} The difference between "global brain" and "world brain" is that the latter, as envisaged by Wells, is centrally controlled,<ref name=Rayward/> while the former is fully decentralised and [[self-organization|self-organizing]].

In 2001, Doug Schuler, a professor at [[Evergreen State University]], proposed a worldwide [[civic intelligence]] network as the fulfillment of Wells's world brain. As examples he cited [[Sustainable Seattle]] and the "Technology Healthy City" project in Seattle.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Schuler |first=Doug |date=January 2001 |title=Cultivating society's civic intelligence: patterns for a new 'World Brain' |publisher=Information, Communication & Society |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=157–181 |doi=10.1080/13691180122844 |s2cid=214651651 |url=https://www.academia.edu/2518107}}</ref>

====Wikipedia as a World Brain====

A number of commentators have suggested that Wikipedia represents the World Brain as described by Wells.<ref name=Reagle />{{rp|24}}<ref>Joseph Stromberg, [https://www.vox.com/2015/2/23/8078973/hg-wells-wikipedia In 1937, H.G. Wells predicted Wikipedia. But he thought it'd lead to world peace], [[Vox.com]], 23 February 2015.</ref> [[Joseph Reagle]] has compared Wells's warning about the need to defend the World Encyclopedia from [[propaganda]] with Wikipedia's [[WP:Neutral point of view|"Neutral Point of View"]] norm:

<blockquote>In keeping with the universal vision, and anticipating a key Wikipedia norm, H. G. Wells was concerned that his ''World Brain'' be an "encyclopedia appealing to all mankind", and therefore it must remain open to corrective criticism, be skeptical of myths (no matter how "venerated") and guard against "narrowing propaganda". This strikes me as similar to the pluralism inherent in the Wikipedia "Neutral Point of View" goal of "representing significant views fairly, proportionately, and without bias".<ref name=Reagle />{{rp|26}}</blockquote>