Noosphere: Does the Internet Provide an Evolutionary Leap to a Higher Level of Collective Intelligence?

The neologism noosphere signifies global human consciousness. According to T. de Chardin, it is the third stage in the development of the earth, after the geosphere and the biosphere. As well as the emergence of life has fundamentally changed the geosphere, the emergence of human consciousness has fundamentally changed the biosphere. De Chardin envisioned the “planetarization” of mankind, which is equivalent to the current globalization by information technology. From an anthropological point of view, internet is not a technology or media as others: it has the potential to revolutionize the current civilizational paradigm. With the advent of the internet the idea of the noosphere has been reactualized and related to the concept of collective intelligence. The article questions the hypothesis of an evolutionary leap in a greater collective intelligence or higher level of collective consciousness presenting pros and cons.