The Noosphere

And now, when at the stage of the noosphere, which is a stage of the revolutionary reorganization of the whole process of the planetary development, the determining factor of evolution is human activity, we should realize that Mind becomes a participant of the evolutionary process, exactly the participant which with all its power follows the common laws. And under such conditions, considering all limits, barriers inherent to Nature, we have the right to speak about the directed development of the biosphere. ... 

The mature views of Vernadsky on the problem of demarcation are presented most extensively in the book, JScientific Thought as a Planetary Phenomenon . During the years between these two works (1902-1938), Vernadsky founded geochemistry and biogeochemistry and created the biosphere and the noosphere concepts. It is interesting to note how his views on the subject changed over time. 

Our view is that the contradictory character of Vernadsky s concept of demarcation manifested itself in 1938 in the noosphere concept even more clearly than in 1902. 

However, the most illustrative example is Vernadsky s statement that the logic of natural science is a function of the biosphere. He called this claim the basic empirical generalisation of his biosphere theory (Vernadsky, 1988, p. 283). It is evidrat that there are no ways to prove this claim by observation or by experiment. At the saine time, this claim plays a central role in Vernadsky s concept of the transition of the biosphere into the noosphere. 

Indeterminate teleology results from a mixture of stochastic and deterministic events. Vernadsky (1997, p. 55) wrote that the biosphere will transform (in one way or another, sooner or later) into the noosphere". That is the way the noosphere created and the final form of the noosphere is not predetermined. The only thing which is determined is the direction of the evolution of the biosphere. The biosphere evolves in the direction of increasing stability, increasing degree of self-regulation and ultimately transfoims into the noosphere. 

The idea of the cosmic nature of life is connected with all the important parts of Vernadsky s theoretical system. One of the arguments in favour of the idea of the eternity of life is his space-time theory (2.1.). Through the noosphere concept, this idea is( tied up with the philosophy of science and the main principles of the bi[Pg.38]

The noosphere concept of Vernadsky is a system of ideas about the future of the planet Earth based on empirical generalisations of the biosphere theory. That is why it is more correct to talk about the theory of the biosphere and its transition into the noosphere. 

In spite of the extensive literature about the noosphere, there has been little attempts (Kutyrev, 1990 Ghilarov, 1994) to critically analyse this concept. In this chapter, I analyse the arguments of Vernadsky supporting his theory of transition of the biosphere into the noosphere. 

In the noosphere concept, Vernadsky formulates one of his most closely-held intuitive canvietions - his unlimited faith in the power of scientific thought. That is why the noosphere concept is seen, from the viewjjoint of Vernadsky himself, as a culmination of his theoretical system. 

He adopted the term noosphere fiom E. Le Roy (Le Roy, 1927), who attended Vernadsky s lectures at the College de France (1922-1926). Le Roy stated that biological evolution is completed and with the appearance of man a new spiritual stage of evolution has begun. Le Roy called this new evolutionary stage the noosphere. 

Vernadsky also tried to find evidence for his noosphere concq>t outside of the pure biogeochetnical cycle of thinking in his own space-time theory. Here I point out some coimections between the noosphere concept and the space-time theory of Vernadsky. 

AII the fears and reasonings of the philistines, representatives of the humanities, and philosophy about the possibility of the fall of civilisation are tied up with an underestimation of the power and depth of geological processes like the one we are now experiencing, namely, the transition of the biosphere into the noosphere (Vernadsky, 1991, p. 45). 

This quoted passage can be interp>reted as follows Geological processes are natural processes. Man, being a natural phenomenon, greatly influences the geological processes. Hence, this very influence also can be treated as a kind of natural process. Nature cannot contradict itself. So civilisation (the transition of the biosphere into the noosphere) cannot be interrupted. 

Thus, neither the planetary character of scientific thought (the lawfulness of its appearance and formation) nor the power and intensity of human influence on geological processes can be used as arguments in favour of the irreversibility of formation of the noosphere. 

Both Vernadsky and Teilhard de Chardin claimed that evolution is a directed process, and their schemes coincide approximately until the appearance of intelligent life. From there Vernadsky s and Teilhard s evolutions diverge because they imply entirely different goals. Vernadsky and Teilhard sketched two absolutely different pictures of the noosphere, although both of them claimed to be strictly phenomenalistic and to base their theories on pure empirical generalisations". 

Vernadsky understood the noosphere as a lawful stage in the evolution of the biosphere. The crucial characteristic of his last stage of biospheric evolution is the dominance of scientific reason. Science influences, accelerates, transforms and takes under its control the natural biospherical processes. At the same time, science is also a natural planetary phenomenon. From Vernadsky s viewpoint the noosphere is not a new sphere on the Earth s surface, because all noospherical events take place in the frame of the biospheric geological stratum. There is no mysticism in this view, and Vernadsky never discussed the temporal limits, or the possiMe end of the noosphere. ... 

Teilhard s viewpoint allows him to depict an imaginary evolution of the noosphere. The psychic, interior side of matter or so-called radial energy" directs matter to higher levels of organisation which culminate in the end of the evolutionary process. This end is external to the evolution itself The Earth s noosphere will be replaced by a supermind and will coalesce into a so-called Omega-Point. As Teilhard put it (1961, pp. 273, 287-288) ... 

The end of the world the wholesale internal introversion upon itself of the noosphere, which has simultaneously reached the uttermost limit of its complexity and centrality. 

Teilhard saw the noosphere as a transitional stage of evolution from the biosphere to the Omega-Point. He describes the noosphere as a layer over the biosphere, because to him it is the begiiming of a separation process. The radial energy enters a stage of visible dominance and partial separation on the way to total independence. 

The noosphere, that is, the biosphere reworked by scientific thought, produced by a process that took place during millions, perhaps billions of years, and created thsHoma sapiens faber, is not a short-tinie and transient geological phenomenon. Processes which took many billions of years, cannot be transient, cannot cease. It follows that the biosphere will transform (one way or another, sooner or later) into the noosphere, that is, in the history of the peoples populating it, those events will happen which are necessary for this transformation, and do not contradict it (Vernadsky, 1991, p. 40). 

Vernadsky also makes this mistake when trying to appeal to geochemical laws by discussing the inevitable coming of the noosphere. It is impossible, in principle, to predict future social and spiritual events by appealing to geochemical regularities of the past. 

Vernadsky and Teilhard de Chardin constructed different concepts of the noosphere and biosphere according to their purposes by interpreting the empirical facts in favour of their theoretical demands. This is clearly shown by their interpretation, of molecular dissymmetry. In 1848, L. Pasteur discovered a phenomenon that he later defined as molecular dissymmetry". He discovered that some of the basic organic compounds found in living matter (crystals) are structurally different from those usually found in the inert envirorunent. Although there are two possible isomers of these organismal compounds which could theoretically exist, one finds pure steric compounds in the... 

Vernadsky s and Teilhard s different interpretations of the biosphere and the noosphere concepts can be said to be connected with two divergent properties. Firstly, they had different theoretical premises, in that Teilhard connected the appearance and future development of the human consciousness with the concept of dichotomous matter, while Vernadsky aimed to place humankind into the geological history pointing out the impassable border between hving and inert substances. Lastly the Offering scientific experience of both theoreticians causafvastty contrasting approaches. 

The way of prediction the appearance of human thought is result of the whole terrestrial evolution, hence the further evolution of the biosphere into the noosphere is iiievitable and the noosphere will exist forever. 

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