Existential Tuesday | If the internet is like a giant brain, what is the Earth really thinking?

Time for an existential analysis of the internet!

Let’s take the long view and consider the evolutionary implications of the internet. After 4.5 billion years in space, the planet – through us, if you will – has created a new feedback mechanism that connects its entire surface and the space around it. Known as the “information superhighway” back in the nineties, thirty years later we can hardly imagine a world without the internet. Add in a pinch of AI, and who knows where this thing is gonna take us – and not just us, but perhaps evolution itself?

Can we figure out the bigger picture by reflecting on what the internet is and does, and how we use it and how it is helping to shape the future? If future entities look back on this time, will they think that this is why we’re here, to build the infrastructure of a planetary brain?

EXISTENTIAL TUESDAYS

Existential Tuesdays are small bi-weekly discussions in the Nook of the TUD Library. Practice your critical thinking skills, learn to see the world from different perspectives, and hang out with your fellow deep thinkers in Delft.

Interested in other events in the Nook? Sign up for the newsletter to find out what else we’re planning.

Check out SG’s related events this quarter on the theme: Posthumanism

According to posthumanism, animals, plants, and objects have rights. Humans are merely part of a greater network in which all things are essentially equal. This requires looking at the world in an entirely different way. Is this the solution to all major crises in the Anthropocene? In this series, through talks, discussions, and art, we’ll explore the consequences of adapting a posthuman worldview.

This theme is part of the series For Love of the World, in which we explore alternative stories and forgotten knowledge that can (re)connect us to our world.

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