permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosphere

Noosphere (pronounced /ˈnoʊ.ɵsfɪər/; sometimes noösphere), according
to the thought of Vladimir Vernadsky[1] and Teilhard de Chardin,
denotes the "sphere of human thought"[2]. The word is derived from the
Greek νοῦς (nous "mind") + σφαῖρα (sphaira "sphere"), in lexical
analogy to "atmosphere" and "biosphere"[3]. Introduced by Pierre
Teilhard de Chardin 1922 [4] in his Cosmogenesis"[5]. Another
possibility is the first use of the term by Édouard Le Roy, who
together with Chardin was listening to lectures of Vladimir Vernadsky
at Sorbonne. 1936 Vernadsky accepted the idea of the Noosphere in a
letter to Boris Leonidovich Lichkov (though, he states that the
concept derives from Le Roy).

In the original theory of Vernadsky, the noosphere is the third in a
succession of phases of development of the Earth, after the geosphere
(inanimate matter) and the biosphere (biological life). Just as the
emergence of life fundamentally transformed the geosphere, the
emergence of human cognition fundamentally transforms the biosphere.
In contrast to the conceptions of the Gaia theorists, or the promoters
of cyberspace, Vernadsky's noosphere emerges at the point where
humankind, through the mastery of nuclear processes, begins to create
resources through the transmutation of elements. It is also currently
being researched as part of the Princeton Global Consciousness
Project.[6]