GLOBAL BRAINS

DEFINITION
The Global Brain can be defined as the self-organizing network formed by all
people on this planet together with the information and communication
technologies that connect and support them. As the Internet becomes faster,
smarter, and more encompassing, it increasingly links its users into a single
information processing system, which functions like a nervous system for the
planet Earth. The intelligence of this system is collective and distributed: it is
not localized in any particular individual, organization or computer system. It
rather emerges from the interactions between all its components a
property characteristic of a complex adaptive system. Such a distributed
intelligence may be able to tackle current and emerging global problems that
have eluded more traditional approaches. Yet, at the same time it will create
technological and social challenges that are still difficult to imagine,
transforming our society in all aspects.
HISTORY
The term "global brain" seems to have been first used by Russell [1995]. The
first people to have made the connection between this concept and the
emerging Internet may well be Mayer-Kress [1995] and de Rosnay [2000].
Heylighen and Bollen [1996], and Goertzel [2001] appear to be the first
researchers to have proposed concrete technologies that might turn the
Internet into an intelligent, brain-like network.
FUNCTIONS
The function of the global brain is to integrate the information gathered by
all its constituents, and to use it in order to solve problems, as well for its
individual constituents as for the global collective. By solving problems I
mean that each time an individual or collective (including humanity as a
whole) needs to do something and does not immediately know how to go
about it, the global brain will suggest a range of more or less adequate
approaches. As the intelligence of the GB increases, through the inclusion of
additional sources of data and/or smarter algorithms to extract useful
information from those data, the solutions it offers will become better, until
they become so good that any individual human intelligence pales in
comparison.

Like all complex systems, the global brain is self-organizing: it is far too
complex to be fully specified by any designer, however intelligent. On the
other hand, far-sighted individuals and groups can contribute to its
emergence by designing some of its constituent mechanisms and
technologies. Some examples of those are, of course, the Internet, the Web,
and Wikipedia.
BENEFITS

Prevents Information Overload

As more and more documents, services, and people move to the
Internet, retrieving, sending and receiving information becomes in
practice effortless and free. Therefore, we increasingly need support
from a system that is capable to sort through billions of information
items and select those that are most relevant to our particular
situation and interests.

Strongly reduces "friction", making the economy more efficient

The global brain will not only facilitate direct communication between
buyers and sellers, but help buyers to find the best value (e.g. through
shopping agents to compare prices), and help sellers to get the best
price (e.g. through automatic auctioning systems). The net effect is
that growth increases, while inflation and economic instability
decrease.

Help eliminate conflicts

It in principle provides a universal channel through which people from
all countries, languages and cultures of this world can communicate.
This will make it easier to reduce mutual ignorance and
misunderstandings, or discuss and resolve differences of opinion. The
greater ease with which good ideas can spread over the whole planet
will make it easier to reach global consensus about issues that concern
everybody. The free flow of information will make it more difficult for
authoritarian regimes to plan suppression or war. The growing
interdependence will stimulate collaboration, while making war more

difficult. The more efficient economy will indirectly reduce the threat of
conflict, since there will be less competition for scarce resources.
APPLICATIONS OF GLOBAL BRAIN
The generalization from transport to production requires a somewhat higher
level of abstraction: every production process can be represented as a
trajectory in state space, moving from the raw state of materials or
components to the finished state via a number of intermediate states. This
trajectory can be optimized taking into account the moment-to-moment
supply of raw material and demand for finished goods. For example, when
the electronic payment systems of booksellers register a higher demand for
a particular novel, printing presses can be adjusted to immediately start
producing more copies, while increasing the standing order for paper from
the suppliers. Effects at the collective level (e.g. some processes are more
polluting or consume more scarce resources than others) can be taken into
account by imposing additional constraints or preferences.
CONCERNS
What about the worry that the incorporation of the individual mind
into the global brain could take away our freedom? Many people,
when they hear about these sorts of ideas, become very concerned that the
advent of such a cognitive superorganism above the human level would
reduce their personal freedom, turning them into basically slaves of the
overmind, or parts of the borg mind, or whatever.
One standard counterargument is that in the presence of a global
superorganism we would feel just as free as we do now, even though our
actions and thoughts would be influenced on a subtle unconscious level by
the superorganism and after all, the feeling of freedom is more a
subjective construct than an objective reality.
Or if there is a decrease in some sorts of freedom coming along with the
emergence of the global brain, one could view this as a gradual continuation

of things that have already been happening for a while. Its not clear that we
do in every relevant sense feel just as free now as our ancestors did in a
hunter-gatherer society. In some senses we may feel more free, in others
less.
Or, you could argue that the ability to tap into a global brain on command
gives a massive increase in freedom and possibility beyond the individuallyconstrained mental worlds we live in now.

INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING
DEFINITION
Is a branch of engineering which deals with the optimization of complex
processes or systems? Industrial engineers work to eliminate waste of time,
money, materials, man-hours, machine time, energy and other resources
that do not generate value.
Industrial engineering is concerned with the development, improvement, and implementation of
integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information, equipment, energy, materials,
analysis and synthesis, as well as the mathematical, physical and social sciences together with the
principles and methods of engineering design to specify, predict, and evaluate the results to be

obtained from such systems or processes.

HISTORY
Industrial engineering can be traced back to the start of the Industrial
Revolution in the late 18th century.
Some of the early practitioners of industrial engineering include:

Samuel Colt, who pioneered the assembly line;

Frederick Taylor, who introduced scientific management, and time-andmotion study;

Harrington Emerson, who described process improvement methods in

his book, "Twelve Principles of Efficiency";

Henry Laurence Gantt, who developed the Gantt Chart for

organizational management;

Henry Ford, who implemented the assembly line for automobile

manufacturing; and

Eliyahu M. Goldratt, who developed the Theory of Constraints (TOC),

which identified the most significant limiting factor in a process the
"bottleneck" and ways to improve it until it is no longer the
constraint.

In its early days, industrial engineering was driven almost entirely by the
motive to increase the efficiency and profitability of manufacturing
operations. Since then, the continuous invention and development of new
machinery and power sources have provided new challenges for industrial
engineers to find new applications for these technologies and optimize their
use to increase productivity.
Starting in the 1940s, the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM)
became an essential part of industrial engineering. TQM places emphasis on
ensuring and improving the quality of products and processes in every phase
of an operation. This has since been supplanted by Six Sigma and the
International Organization for Standardization's ISO 9000 quality standards.
IMPORTANCE

Determining the best location of machines in a factory, or ambulance

stations in a metropolitan area, or a new factory in the U.S., based on
economic and operation considerations; designing computer-aided
process planning systems that flexibly vary the sequence of operations
to produce a product

Determining which types of jobs are most suitable for special

populations of workers, such as the elderly and the handicapped

Developing a system for controlling the inventory levels of a product in

a warehouse, books in a bookstore, or gasoline at a service station

Designing automated material handling systems for the movement of

parts in a factory

Designing a mission management plan for payload specialists on the

NASA space shuttle

Designing computer-integrated manufacturing systems and decision

support systems for integrating information and control between
manufacturing systems, automated guided vehicles, automated
warehouse facilities, and management personnel

Designing a new plan for scheduling cases to operating rooms in a

hospital, or production orders in a factory

Determining the optimal routing of ambulances through a city, or

material handling vehicles in a factory, to minimize travel time

Developing reliability and quality management systems to ensure that

a manufactured product is free from defects

Developing programs for analyzing human reliability to assess work

place safety

Designing computer graphics systems to assist operators in the

monitoring and control of industrial processes

ADVANTAGES

Leaner, more efficient, and more profitable business practices while increasing customer

service and quality.

Improved efficiency. This improves competitiveness, profitability, and reduces resource

requirements.
The idea of setting labor or time standards. The original production lines in the 1920s were

successful because of IEs. The IE profession is timeless and can be molded to fit the times and the
place.
Good organization and improving productivity - these improvements eliminate or reduce

some of the frustrations of life and are essential to the long term health of business.
Increased ability to do more with less.

Making work safer, faster, easier, and more rewarding.

Providing a method by which businesses can analyze their processes and try to make
improvements to them. It is focused on optimization - doing more with less - and helps to reduce

waste in society.
Increased cycle time and throughput thus helping more people get their product quicker.
Assistance in guiding society and business to care more for their workforce while improving

the bottom-line.
Showing ways to improve the working environment, improving efficiencies, and teaching

people about ergonomics.

Making the world safer through better designed and easier to use products.

Reducing costs associated with new technologies, thus allowing more of the population to
better their lives by being able to afford technological advances.