ANNOTATION:
Different Scenarios for Global Brain Formation

It seems to me that once a World Wide Web system is created by a 
civilization that the formation of a global brain would be 
inevitable.  One might wonder what would be the difference on 
different planets as far as the details of the formation.  One 
that I can see is whether the civilization consists of a number 
of nations all more or less equal, or whether the situation is 
as we have on this planet, one nation dominating the rest.  In 
 this latter case the GB formation will probably be much harder.  
 An analogy to this might be that of melting chunks of lead down 
to liquid form.  If the chunks are all approximately equal in 
size, the process would proceed smoothly.  If most of the mass 
is in one large chunk, it would proceed only slowly and with 
difficulty.  It would be very interesting to know out of all the 
civilizations in the Universe which reached our present level of 
technology if any destroyed themselves this late in the game.  I 
believe that it is possible if the dominant nation fights so 
hard to become the global model that it destroys the very planet 
it resides on.