What is the global superorganism?
The metaphor of the information network as global brain can be extended to the whole of society as a global organism. If the information processes in the network constitute the “mind” of this system, all people together with their artefacts (tools, buildings, cars, etc.) form its “body”. Since individual people are organisms themselves, this encompassing system is an organism consisting of organisms, that is, a super-organism. The superorganism not only has a nervous system for processing information, but a metabolism for processing matter and energy: resources such as ores, water, oil are converted via various industrial processes into specialized goods and services, transported to the place where they are needed, used, and finally recycled or excreted as waste. Miller’s “living systems theory” provides a detailed correspondence between the different subsystems of a society and those of an organism.
