IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/tefoso/v114y2017icp48-64.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Global Commons in the Global Brain

Author

Listed:
  • Last, Cadell

Abstract

The next decade (present to ~2020–2025) could be characterized by large-scale labour disruption and further acceleration of income and wealth inequality due to the widespread introduction of general-purpose robotics, machine-learning software/artificial intelligence (AI) and their various interconnections within the emerging infrastructure of the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT). In this paper I argue that such technological changes and their socioeconomic consequences signal the emergence of a global metasystem (i.e. control organization beyond markets and nation-states) and may require a qualitatively new level of political organization to guide a process of self-organization. Consequently, this paper proposes and attempts to develop a conceptual framework with the potential to aid an international political transition towards a ‘post-capitalist’ ‘post-nation state’ global world. This conceptual framework is grounded within sociotechnological theory of the ‘Global Brain’ (GB), which describes a potential future planetary organizational structure founded on distributed and open-ended intelligence; and the socioeconomic theory of the ‘Commons’, which is a paradigm describing distributed modes of organization founded upon principles of democratic management and open access. In the integration of GB theory and Commons theory this paper ultimately argues that an appropriate international response to the emerging technological revolution should include the creation of networks with both automated and collaborative components that function on ‘Global Commons’ (GC) logic (i.e. beyond both state and market logic).

Suggested Citation

  • Last, Cadell, 2017. "Global Commons in the Global Brain," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 48-64.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:114:y:2017:i:c:p:48-64
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2016.06.013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162516301226
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techfore.2016.06.013?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dirk Helbing, 2013. "Economics 2.0: The Natural Step towards A Self-Regulating, Participatory Market Society," Papers 1305.4078, arXiv.org, revised Jun 2013.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Roth, Steffen & Clark, Carlton & Trofimov, Nikolay & Mkrtichyan, Artur & Heidingsfelder, Markus & Appignanesi, Laura & Pérez-Valls, Miguel & Berkel, Jan & Kaivo-oja, Jari, 2017. "Futures of a distributed memory. A global brain wave measurement (1800–2000)," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 307-323.
    2. Walkowiak, Emmanuelle, 2021. "Neurodiversity of the workforce and digital transformation: The case of inclusion of autistic workers at the workplace," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    3. Roth, Steffen & Schwede, Peter & Valentinov, Vladislav & Pérez-Valls, Miguel & Kaivo-oja, Jari, 2020. "Harnessing big data for a multifunctional theory of the firm," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 54-61.
    4. Anca Elena-Bucea & Frederico Cruz-Jesus & Tiago Oliveira & Pedro Simões Coelho, 2021. "Assessing the Role of Age, Education, Gender and Income on the Digital Divide: Evidence for the European Union," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 1007-1021, August.
    5. Anca Elena-Bucea & Frederico Cruz-Jesus & Tiago Oliveira & Pedro Simões Coelho, 0. "Assessing the Role of Age, Education, Gender and Income on the Digital Divide: Evidence for the European Union," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-15.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:114:y:2017:i:c:p:48-64. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00401625 .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.