{"product_id":"world-brain-9780262542562","title":"World Brain","description":"\u003cb\u003eIn 1937, H. G. Wells proposed a predigital, freely available World Encyclopedia to represent a civilization-saving World Brain.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn a series of talks and essays in 1937, H. G. Wells proselytized for what he called a World Brain, as manifested in a World Encyclopedia--a repository of scientifically established knowledge--that would spread enlightenment around the world and lead to world peace. Wells, known to readers today as the author of \u003ci\u003eThe War of the Worlds\u003c\/i\u003e and other science fiction classics, was imagining something like a predigital Wikipedia. The World Encyclopedia would provide a summary of verified reality (in about forty volumes); it would be widely available, free of copyright, and utilize the latest technology. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eOf course, as Bruce Sterling points out in the foreword to this edition of Wells's work, the World Brain didn't happen; the internet did. And yet, Wells anticipated aspects of the internet, envisioning the World Brain as a technical system of networked knowledge (in Sterling's words, a hypothetical super-gadget). Wells's optimism about the power of information might strike readers today as na vely utopian, but possibly also inspirational.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e MIT Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/03\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780262542562\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 176","brand":"H. G. Wells","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40423468531893,"sku":"9780262542562","price":21.21,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_d7ecc627-bfff-42f9-ae78-53c57ea95300.jpg?v=1625577234","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/world-brain-9780262542562","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}