THE INFORMATION EXPLOSION John Scales Avery May 7, 2018 2 Contents 1 WHAT IS INFORMATION? 11 1.1 An interview with Binu Mathiew . 11 1.2 What is life? . 27 1.3 Molecular biology . 32 1.4 The structure of DNA . 35 1.5 Hypothermophiles and the origin of life . 37 2 THE EVOLUTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS 51 2.1 Are matter and mind separate? . 51 2.2 Jakob von Uexk¨ulland Umwelt . 54 2.3 Amoebae, slime molds and sponges . 58 2.4 The world as seen by a jellyfish . 61 2.5 The giant squid axon . 62 2.6 Internuncial circuits . 69 2.7 Pattern abstraction in the octopus brain . 71 2.8 The mentality of apes . 74 2.9 Dreaming and intelligence . 76 2.10 Superorganisms and collective consciousness . 77 3 AGRICULTURE 83 3.1 Accelerating cultural evolution . 83 3.2 Early agriculture in the Middle East . 86 3.3 Rice cultivation in Asia . 89 3.4 Agriculture in the western hemisphere . 91 3.5 Peru gives potatoes to the world . 94 3.6 The threat of widespread famine . 97 3.7 Population growth and the Green Revolution . 101 3.8 Energy-dependence of modern agriculture . 104 3.9 Effects of climate change on agriculture . 106 3.10 Harmful effects of industrialized farming . 111 3.11 The demographic transition . 113 3.12 Illegal burning for palm oil plantations . 117 3.13 The beef industry in South America . 119 3 4 CONTENTS 3.14 Growing populations and forest loss . 122 3.15 Desertification and soil erosion . 123 3.16 Forest drying and wildfires: a feedback loop . 124 3.17 Degraded forests are carbon emitters . 124 3.18 Replanting forests . 125 3.19 Algae as a source of food . 126 3.20 Farming the seas . 128 4 WRITING. PAPER AND PRINTING 135 4.1 Mesopotamia . 135 4.2 Egypt . 136 4.3 China . 138 4.4 The Americas . 139 4.5 The invention of paper . 140 4.6 Printing . 144 4.7 Islamic civilization and printing . 145 4.8 Gutenberg . 150 4.9 The Enlightenment . 153 4.10 Universal education . 165 4.11 The importance of education for women . 167 4.12 Printing and the rise of nationalism . 175 5 AN EXPLOSION OF COMMUNICATION 179 5.1 A revolution in communication . 179 5.2 Ørsted, Amp`ereand Faraday . 182 5.3 Electromagnetic waves: Maxwell and Hertz . 187 5.4 The discovery of electrons . 189 5.5 History of the electrical telegraph . 190 5.6 The transatlantic cable . 193 5.7 Marconi . 196 5.8 Alexander Graham Bell . 197 5.9 Cinema . 199 5.10 The invention of television . 201 5.11 The history of the Internet . 204 5.12 Skype . 207 5.13 Facebook . 208 5.14 Mainstream media fail in their duty . 209 5.15 Alternative media . 211 5.16 The advertising industry . 224 CONTENTS 5 6 AN EXPLOSION OF POPULATION 231 6.1 The warning voice of Malthus . 231 6.2 The demographic transition . 239 6.3 Urbanization . 240 6.4 Achieving economic equality . 241 6.5 Achieving a steady-state economic system . 244 6.6 Climate change as genocide . 244 6.7 The United Nations High Commission on Refugees . 245 6.8 Populations displaced by sea level rise . 246 6.9 Populations displaced by drought and famine . 246 6.10 Populations displaced by rising temperatures . 246 6.11 Populations displaced by war . 247 6.12 Political reactions to migration . 248 6.13 A more humane response to the refugee crisis . 249 7 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 261 7.1 Pascal and Leibniz . 261 7.2 Jacquard and Babbage . 263 7.3 Harvard's sequence-controlled calculator . 268 7.4 The first electronic computers . 269 7.5 Biosemiotics . 273 7.6 Some personal memories of early computers . 275 7.7 The invention of transistors . 277 7.8 The Traitorous Eight . 278 7.9 Integrated circuits . 280 7.10 Moore's law . 281 7.11 Self-reinforcing information accumulation . 284 7.12 Automation . 285 7.13 Neural networks . 289 8 THE FUTURE OF WORK 303 8.1 Some adverse effects globalization . 303 8.2 Say's Law . 305 8.3 Veblen; economics as anthropology . 306 8.4 Gandhi as an economist . 309 8.5 Thoreau . 314 8.6 The counter-culture . 317 8.7 The Brundtland Report . 318 8.8 The Earth Summit at Rio . 319 8.9 The transition from growth to a steady state - minimizing the trauma . 321 8.10 Keynesian economics . 324 8.11 The transition to a sustainable economy . 329 8.12 The World Bank Report . 329 6 CONTENTS 8.13 Population and goods per capita . 340 8.14 Our information-based economy . 340 8.15 Full employment is more important than profit . 341 9 CULTURE IS COOPERATIVE, NOT COMPETITIVE 351 9.1 Human society as a superorganism . 351 9.2 The evolution of cooperation . 354 9.3 Culture, Education and human solidarity . 366 9.4 Modern weapons . 369 9.5 War as a business . 378 9.6 War as a hindrance to global equality . 380 9.7 Global inequalities as a hindrance to peace . ..