The Global Brain Concept
In 1983 Russell proposed a Global Brain that might emerge from a worldwide network of humans who were highly connected through communications. He based his argument on the observation that throughout evolution qualitative transitions to a new level of organization have been observed to occur in several instances where a system attains approximately 10 billion (ten to the tenth power) units that are tightly but flexibly coupled. Examples include the number of atoms in a bio-molecule, the number of molecules in a cell, and the number of cells in the cortex of the human brain. Since the world population (5.7 billion, 1994) is within an order of magnitude of ten to the tenth and growing, the threshold for a new level of organization, by his arguments, could be reached soon. Thus Russell saw the network of interconnected humans forming a Global Brain; we expand the concept to include computers — not only as communication links between humans, as Russell used them, but as active information-processors alongside humans. Simulations in this environment will have to include life-like, agent based elements. ——- [Santa Fe Institution]

Great minds, great vision. Putting blog, neural networks and social software together, we can imagine a real Global Brain is emerging. However, what’s the mind in this brain? It’s a “God” or “Evil”? Who can forsee the future of human beings? Is it green or grey? ……

Virtual Drum Kit. Fun enough!

Add Haloscan comment to this blog, not well tested yet. Thanks for Topku‘s complaining. ;-)

“I like eating full-text/html RSS!”, A fable(In Chinese) writing about “Shark”(My SharpReader’s name), to call on bloggers’ using FULL-TEXT even FULL HTML RSS to support better aggregation experience. To Movabletype users, they can apply the full text/html template to support this.

关于民间组织的法规

“目前,中国国内关于民间组织的法规主要有四部:1988年的《基金会管理办法》、1989年的《外国商会管理暂行规定》、1998年的《社会团体登记管理条例》以及1998年的《民办非企业单位登记管理暂行条例》。此外,上述基金会管理办法的修订工作也正在进行之中。这些法规的颁布实施为民间组织的注册登记以及运作提供了基本的法律规定。但是,实践证明:这些法规在实际应用中缺乏明确性,而且很多规定已经过时了。”—[soruce: n/a, a digest in my digital library, for FAIR USE only]

还有美使馆的一份中国NGO研究报告,仅供参考。

Christopher M. Johnson has published a beautiful diagrammatic overview of communities of practice(CoP). Well worth a look. [Thanks to John D. Smith.]
[Column Two]