Humanity is Much more than the sum of humans

Abstract

Consider two roughly spherical and coextensive complex systems: the atmosphere and the upper component of the biosphere-humanity. It is well known that, due to a malicious antipodal butterfly, the possibility to accurately forecast the weather is severely limited. Why should it be easier to predict and steer the future of humanity? Here we present various viewpoints on the issue. On a long time scale, we sketch a software-oriented view at the cosmos in all of its components, from spacetime to the biosphere and human societies, borrowing ideas from Wolfram, Chaitin and Tononi; this is also motivated by an attempt to provide some formal foundations to Teilhard de Chardin's cosmological/metaphysical visions. On a shorter scale, we discuss the possibility of using formalmodels, agent based software systems, and big data from social computing, for simulating humanity in-silico, in order to anticipate problems and test solutions.