Note:  Answer sheets, tests and attendance records will be distributed at the end of the first hour, and we will discuss the test during the support groups and the third hour.  If you want to know your test grade before 2 o'clock, you should check it online.

Today's class will explore the metaphor of a "Global Brain," first popularized in Peter Russell's  The Global Brain Awakens.  You can read a chapter from this book, The GLOBAL BRAIN and the Evolution of the WWW, online.  Another pioneer was J.C.R. Licklider, who wrote two futuristic essays, "Man-Computer Symbiosis" and "The Computer as a Communication Device," both also available online.  Today, this kind of thinking is often associated with Vice President Gore, who is involved in a Digital Earth Website.  People around the world are linked together to use their computers in the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.  Anyone can sign up for SETI@home.

Wireless Palm PC and  Handspring computers, with limited Internet connection capability, are being heavily marketed.  A few hobbyists are going around wearing  Cyborg fashions which keep them continuously linked to the WEB with goggles and one-handed keyboards.  People are now touring museums with hand held computers, offering commentary on the paintings they are seeing.  Where will this trend go?  Will we be wired into a "global brain"?  If so, is this a good thing?
 

Reading Assignments:

From Two Small Nodes, a Might Web Has Grown.

Excerpts from Chapter 10 of Webmind.

The Human Macro-Organism as Fungus.
 

Writing Assignment:

For next week, instead of writing in your Web Diary, you should prepare the outline for your term project.   I've posted some links you might find helpful to surf through.  There should be a link from your Web Diary to your Project Outline.  Just say, "this week I worked on my Project Outline on archetypal imagery in computer games (or whatever)."  You should have written in the Diary for the week of October 15 to October 22.  If you did not, you can add an entry this week focusing on the Global Brain material.

If you are working as a member of a group, the project group leader must maintain a Table of Contents page for the group project, with links to each member, and each students' page should include a link back to that Table of Contents page.  In addition, there may be sequential links between the pages if this makes sense given the organization of your project.  If you are working as an individual, you need not link to anyone else.

Bring a copy of your Project Outline, printed on paper, to hand into Andrew Toy on October 29.