“. . . a more exact rendering would be ‘the practice of natural philosophy,’ in other words, the making of a world-picture, but one that takes as much account of starfish as of stars.” ~Vincent Cronin, The View from Planet Earth: Man Looks at the Cosmos
The digital age has moved experience from the real to the surreal.
In a sense, with the advent of the world wide web, humans are able to know one another on differing levels of perception, removing each of us from strictly the living breathing vital human beings to the purely conceptual beings that we all really are. We find out that we are not spies (LOL), that we are not Gapetto’s creation, that we are not Turing Tests, that we are not disembodied voices or artificial intelligence, but that we are humans being. . . simultaneously in the same space. Earthlings us all, yes. How wonderful.
We are emergent beings, emergent consciousnesses in this realm (the third dimension otherwise known as the Real World, or “offline”). Julian Jaynes he posited that consciousness didn’t exist in humans until about 5,000 years ago. That humans were not always conscious, and it wasn’t until humans evolved from a bicameral mind to a more unified mind that consciousness emerged. An interesting position, I think, as most believe humans have been conscious since human inception.
Alan Watts talks about the earth peopling, quite like an apple tree 
apples. Add to that the idea that humans share a percentage of DNA with all other living ogranisms on the Earth (the most with the chimpanzees, but humans also share DNA with fish, flowers, so on and so on…just a small percentage the more physical differing that organism). Well, this is an interesting idea, isn’t it (actually, I love this idea, and agree with it)? Ok, so humans share DNA with all organisms on the planet, thusly, share DNA with the planet itself, yes?
Well, if humans are conscious, ergo, is not the planet as well? If we take that idea further, the planet is comprised of cells, molecules, atoms, etc., etc., couldn’t we say that the World Wide Web is compressed of cellular automata (and actually, that is what information theory posits)? Well, could not those cells also spontaneously evolve? And if that is so, could not a consciousness then emerge?
There is much more to the idea, but basically, what I think is if humans are all putting their minds on the internet all day, every day (essentially behaving conglomerately as a planet) couldn’t another consciousness emerge from that? This is what I think or at least wonder. Especially, taking into account how wireless communication is very much like biological organisms. Isn’t wireless communication very much like a cerebral network?
What would be incredible to see would be this emergent consciousness evolve. I mean, would/could it reproduce? Would/could it develop civilizations, empires, governments? Would it behave like our human trajectory?
“It is an emergent perspective, or state of consciousness, that bursts forth spontaneously and miraculously only when the conditions are right. “Emergent” means that it is something greater than the sum of its parts—a new order of relatedness, a new level of consciousness, a deeper and higher perspective that is always unimaginable until the moment it explodes into existence.” ~Andrew Cohen
*Image credit (used with permission through CC license)–
“Earth Hour” & “Looking For Reality” by Cornelia Kopp
“Source — IX”, “Universe in a magic Drop” & “Liberation of Consciousness” by HartwigHKD
“milkyway” by Eddi van W.
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- Philosophy – We All Survive the Physical [Holographic] Death of Our Bodie (disclose.tv)
- Consciousness is the Creative Process (dragonintuitive.com)
- Prior Consciousness (dragonintuitive.com)
- Prominent scientists sign declaration that animals have conscious awareness, just like us (2012indyinfo.com)
NIKOtheOrb 
Just think, if humanity is composed of inorganic material that has somehow become concious, the possibilities are there for AI to do the same. I think of this planet as a living entity incubating seeds that may float out into space to colonise distant planets like so many dandelion seeds on the wind.
Yes, exactly. And I love your analogy to dandelion seeds on the wind; this is very much the concept behind this post. How do we earthlings know that this is not how life on earth began?
Good article. If you have not read Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age or A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer, (same book), you really should. You will very much like the ending. 😉
Thank you 🙂
I have not read The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (I don’t think I have yet encountered this author in my readings); I will keep an eye out for a copy (so I can just read the ending of course! :-D). Thanks for the suggestion.
Yeah, I think you will enjoy the beginning and the middle too…lol. The ending of the book as a concept, not an actual in details, is how I see the world transforming in the present and near future. The author writes mostly cyber-punk, my favorite genre, because it explores the world more as a living entity, forever evolving toward something greater.
~Shadow
I agree with that view, that the world is more of a living entity, forever evolving. It is a concept I call seamlessness, and this obvious seamlessness incorporates within the fabric of our reality. This tendency and convergence towards simplicity, which I think drives this paradigm shift.