noosphere

noun

Etymology: Borrowed from French noosphère, from Ancient Greek νόος (nóos, “mind, spirit”) + Ancient Greek σφαῖρα (sphaîra, “ball, globe”), developed and perhaps coined by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Vladimir Vernadsky, in analogy to atmosphere, biosphere etc. By surface analysis, nous (“mind”) + -sphere.

1. The sphere of human reason, thought, and consciousness, seen as a theoretical evolutionary stage.

   “I used to have a pretty clear idea of God. Now we have these new theologians who say God’s inside here not up there or he’s an impersonal noosphere and the anthropomorphic image is out. Three unpersons in one anthropomorphic noosphere.”

   “Finally, human beings reproduce themselves mentally through exchanges with cultural and symbolic environments[…] These relational exchanges are embedded in the traditions and institutions of a particular society in such a way that that society can reproduce itself on a cultural level, can reproduce itself in the noosphere.”