Next: Introduction
Messy Futures and Global Brains
Gottfried Mayer-Kress
Center for Complex Systems Research
Beckman Institute and Department of Physics
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Urbana, IL 61801
gmk@pegasos.ccsr.uiuc.edu
http://www.ccsr.uiuc.edu/ gmk/
Abstract:
The recent history after WW-II was characterized by a relatively simple partition
of the world in basically two domains of superpower interests. Security issues
could be discussed and analyzed in global
framework of two strategic players. There were clear goals and roles for the players.
Today with the role of strategic nuclear weapons greatly reduced we have regional
crises which have some similarities with pre WW-I situations with one mayor difference:
Today's world is
much more connected, especially information-wise: On a large scale
we are able to get direct first hand information from crisis areas
and -for example through computer networks- can directly participate in the discussion.
That makes the future from a traditional control point of view messy and on a global
scale more complex and less predictable.
For that reason we think that the conditions for the emergence of a Global Brain
will become a practical reality for global modeling and simulation in the very near future.
We also discuss some of the potential future applications.
Gottfried Mayer-Kress
Sat Apr 22 21:04:59 MDT 1995