> An existing term for this kind of system is "distributed mind".
>
> If you want to be different, maybe you can call it "community mind" (what
> is the adjective corresponding to community?)
>
> > Also, any reference to prior ("serious" or science-fictional)
> developments
> > of this theme?
>
> Google "distributed mind" and "distributed cognition" --- though some of
> them are not that "serious", the one at UCSD is getting attention.I'm aware of some of the literature on "distributed cognition", but what I've seen is more pragmatic and pertains to cognition that occurs in current human groups, mediated by language, e-mail, chat, knowledge management tools, etc. What I'm talking about is something deeper -- a hypothetical form of mind where the social-group (as well as the individual minds) achieves its own emergent "conscious theater" ... a "multi-mind" I guess (but I don't love that term...) > As I remember, Asimov's Gaia (in the Foundation novels) is such a mind. Theodore Sturgeon's excellent novel "More than Human" describes a multi-mind composed of telepaths -- the overall mind has an overall consciousness and control-structure, but so do the individual components... -- Ben G ------- To unsubscribe, change your address, or temporarily deactivate your subscription, please go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
