The FAQ - Is the global brain a higher level of evolution?
Refers to multicellular creatures but nothing else on the way to the emergance of intelligence. I suggest that the emergence of organ differentiation, nervious systems, reflexes, and learning are all emergent systems of organization, and all but the first serve in the mode of moving/storing information. The social organization of creatures is full of wonderful examples of otherwise stupid individuals (ants for example) accomplishing great things as a community (yes neighbors there is hope). While I do not see the parts explaining the whole and thus do not find consolation in AO Wilson's Consilience by itself.
One may further articulate the globalization of information as technology moved from Chinia back and forth to Europe as described by Robert Wright in NONZER0. The Internet provides speed, but nothing new except the smallness of transactions and the delicacy with which things can be negotiated by many. Printing and e-tele (graph/phone/vision/mail/etc) all provide speed and parallelism.
What is facinating is the effect of relatively well-informed consumer/voter decisions. Soon we will be bidding on the next production run given choices of specifications.
