Literature/1936/Wells


 * Reprinted
 * pp. 3-35.

Excerpts

 * My particular line of country has always been generalization of synthesis. I dislike isolated events and disconnected details. I really hate statements, views, prejudices and beliefs that jump at you suddenly out of mid-air. I like my world as coherent and consistent as possible. So far at any rate my temperament is that of a scientific man. And that is why I have spent a few score thousand hours of my particular allotment of vitality in making outlines of history, short histories of the world, general accounts of the science of life, attempts to bring economic, financial and social life into one conspectus and even, still more desperate, struggles to estimate the possible consequences of this or that set of operating causes upon the future of mankind. All these attempts had profound and conspicuous faults and weaknesses; even my friends are apt to mention them with an apologetic smile; presumptuous and preposterous they were, I admit, but I look back upon them, completely unabashed. Somebody had to break the ice. Somebody had to try out such summaries on the general mind. My reply to the superior critic has always been ... "Damn you, do it better." (pp. 3-4)


 * This World Encyclopaedia would be the mental background of every intelligent man in the world. It would be alive and growing and changing continually under revision, extension and replacement from the original thinkers in the world everywhere. Every university and research institution should be feeding it. Every fresh mind should be brought into contact with its standing editorial organization .... It would do just what our scattered and disoriented intellectual organizations of today fall short of doing. It would hold the world together mentally. (pp. 20-21)
 * [...] without a World Encyclopaedia to hold men's minds together in something like a common interpretation of reality, there is no hope whatever of anything but an accidental and transitory alleviation of any of our world troubles. (pp. 34-5)


 * More...
 * World Brain

Wikimedia

 * 1928:  The Open Conspiracy
 * 1933:  The Shape of Things to Come
 * 1936:  World Encyclopedia
 * 1938:  World Brain
 * 1945: Memex
 * 1955: The $64,000 Question
 * 1956: Cognitive revolution
 * 1957: Sputnik 1
 * 1960: Project Xanadu
 * 1962: NLS (computer system)
 * 1964: Science Citation Index
 * 1964: SMART Information Retrieval System


 * 1974: Internet Protocol Suite
 * 1975: Altair 8800
 * 1975: Tiny BASIC
 * 1976: Apple I
 * 1980: ENQUIRE
 * 1981: IBM PC
 * 1982: The Global Brain
 * 1982:  The Paideia Proposal
 * 1982: Guide (hypertext)
 * 1983: The Interactive Encyclopedia System
 * 1984: NoteCards
 * 1987: HyperCard
 * 1991: World Wide Web
 * 1992: ViolaWWW
 * 1993: Mosaic (web browser)
 * 1994: Netscape
 * 1995: Wiki
 * 1995: Yahoo!
 * 1998: Google
 * 2000: Nupedia
 * 2001: Wikipedia


 * See also
 * http://enc.tfode.com/WorldBrain

Chronology

 * cf. Vannevar Bush,  J. D. Bernal,  Eugene Garfield,  Manfred Kochen,  Jorge Luis Borges, Michael Arbib,  Martin Gardner,  Mike Lesk,  Ben Shneiderman
 * cf. Paul Otlet
 * cf. Leo Szilard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard
 * cf. Vannevar Bush,  J. D. Bernal,  Eugene Garfield,  Manfred Kochen,  Jorge Luis Borges, Michael Arbib,  Martin Gardner,  Mike Lesk,  Ben Shneiderman
 * cf. Paul Otlet
 * cf. Leo Szilard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard
 * cf. Vannevar Bush,  J. D. Bernal,  Eugene Garfield,  Manfred Kochen,  Jorge Luis Borges, Michael Arbib,  Martin Gardner,  Mike Lesk,  Ben Shneiderman
 * cf. Paul Otlet
 * cf. Leo Szilard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard
 * cf. Vannevar Bush,  J. D. Bernal,  Eugene Garfield,  Manfred Kochen,  Jorge Luis Borges, Michael Arbib,  Martin Gardner,  Mike Lesk,  Ben Shneiderman
 * cf. Paul Otlet
 * cf. Leo Szilard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard
 * cf. Vannevar Bush,  J. D. Bernal,  Eugene Garfield,  Manfred Kochen,  Jorge Luis Borges, Michael Arbib,  Martin Gardner,  Mike Lesk,  Ben Shneiderman
 * cf. Paul Otlet
 * cf. Leo Szilard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard
 * cf. Vannevar Bush,  J. D. Bernal,  Eugene Garfield,  Manfred Kochen,  Jorge Luis Borges, Michael Arbib,  Martin Gardner,  Mike Lesk,  Ben Shneiderman
 * cf. Paul Otlet
 * cf. Leo Szilard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard
 * cf. Vannevar Bush,  J. D. Bernal,  Eugene Garfield,  Manfred Kochen,  Jorge Luis Borges, Michael Arbib,  Martin Gardner,  Mike Lesk,  Ben Shneiderman
 * cf. Paul Otlet
 * cf. Leo Szilard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard
 * cf. Vannevar Bush,  J. D. Bernal,  Eugene Garfield,  Manfred Kochen,  Jorge Luis Borges, Michael Arbib,  Martin Gardner,  Mike Lesk,  Ben Shneiderman
 * cf. Paul Otlet
 * cf. Leo Szilard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard
 * cf. Vannevar Bush,  J. D. Bernal,  Eugene Garfield,  Manfred Kochen,  Jorge Luis Borges, Michael Arbib,  Martin Gardner,  Mike Lesk,  Ben Shneiderman
 * cf. Paul Otlet
 * cf. Leo Szilard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard
 * cf. Vannevar Bush,  J. D. Bernal,  Eugene Garfield,  Manfred Kochen,  Jorge Luis Borges, Michael Arbib,  Martin Gardner,  Mike Lesk,  Ben Shneiderman
 * cf. Paul Otlet
 * cf. Leo Szilard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard
 * cf. Vannevar Bush,  J. D. Bernal,  Eugene Garfield,  Manfred Kochen,  Jorge Luis Borges, Michael Arbib,  Martin Gardner,  Mike Lesk,  Ben Shneiderman
 * cf. Paul Otlet
 * cf. Leo Szilard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard
 * cf. Vannevar Bush,  J. D. Bernal,  Eugene Garfield,  Manfred Kochen,  Jorge Luis Borges, Michael Arbib,  Martin Gardner,  Mike Lesk,  Ben Shneiderman
 * cf. Paul Otlet
 * cf. Leo Szilard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard
 * cf. Vannevar Bush,  J. D. Bernal,  Eugene Garfield,  Manfred Kochen,  Jorge Luis Borges, Michael Arbib,  Martin Gardner,  Mike Lesk,  Ben Shneiderman
 * cf. Paul Otlet
 * cf. Leo Szilard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard
 * cf. Vannevar Bush,  J. D. Bernal,  Eugene Garfield,  Manfred Kochen,  Jorge Luis Borges, Michael Arbib,  Martin Gardner,  Mike Lesk,  Ben Shneiderman
 * cf. Paul Otlet
 * cf. Leo Szilard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard
 * cf. Leo Szilard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard
 * cf. Leo Szilard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard
 * cf. Leo Szilard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard
 * cf. Robert H. Goddard