The singularity and H.G. Wells's conception of the world brain

Maxim Shadurski

doi:10.5817/BSE2020-1-11

The singularity and H.G. Wells's conception of the world brain

Vol.46,No.1(2020)

Maxim Shadurski

https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2020-1-11

Stable URL (handle):
http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/142609

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Abstract

Prescience allowed H. G. Wells to predict the outbreak of WWII and anticipate modern technologies, such as the aeroplane, the tank, the atomic bomb, the laser beam, and biological engineering. This article explores Wells's prefiguration of the singularity in the shape of the world brain. In both his fiction and journalism, Wells invests in vast political and social transformations, which precede the emergence of a knowledge infrastructure whose universal availability purports to transcend national, racial, gender, and socioeconomic boundaries. Contextualized alongside present-day concerns about exclusion, the world brain offers a critical model for circumventing the singularity as a dystopian prospect.

Keywords:
H. G. Wells; world brain; Ray Kurzwei; singularity; technology; exclusion

Pages:
229–241

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