Teilhard De Chardin

Deletion impossible - I've kept a copy!

Teilhard de Chardin's word NooSphere shows up more often these days. The Noosphere is the part of the world of life that is created by man's thought and culture. Here is some more background ...

http://www.nettuno.it/fiera/electric.italy/noosphere.html -- summary
http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/1997/mar/cunning.html -- spiritual
http://www.ibiblio.org/cmc/mag/1995/jan/heim.html -- metaphysics
http://www.technoetic.com/noosphere/ -- portal
http://catb.org/~esr/writings/ -- EricRaymond

One could understand existentialism as founded upon the assertion that there is nothing but noosphere. According to Sartre, "existence precedes essence", i.e. there may exists something, but it is meaningless. The meaning comes from man, and engages his responsibility. Modern sciences take this into account and are thus "Sciences of the artificial" (Herbert Simon), not "natural sciences" any more. --MarcGirod

His full name is a bit of a French tongue twister: Père Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Try saying that fast!

Teilhard De Chardin is, like Keats, a name oftenly mentioned in The Hyperion Cantos (Hyperion, The Fall Of Hyperion, Endymion, The Rise Of Endymion), by Dan Simmons (a true SF masterpiece!!).

"I attribute no definitive and absolute value to the various constructions of man. I believe that they will disappear, recast in a new whole that we cannot yet conceive. At the same time I admit that they have an essential provisional role - that they are necessary, inevitable phases which we (we or the race) must pass through in the course of our metamorphosis. What I love in them is not their particular form, but their function, which is to build up, in some mysterious way, first something divinizable - and then, through the grace of Christ alighting on our effort, something divine." -- Teilhard de Chardin (from Endymion, by Dan Simmons; page 478)

Not getting deleted until a better reason is given.

Seconded. Please exercise caution, as external sites are known to link to this page. Furthermore, some might consider this interesting in a computer way due to its relation to TheSingularity.

The "Saga of Exile in the Pliocene" and the "Galactic Milieu Saga" by Julian May, which are also a masterpiece of SF, contain and are strongly based and articulated around de Chardain's thoughts. Not to be missed... -- DavidDeLis

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