Hi Dustin,

I also appreciate the brilliance of Clarke's Childhood's End and the way it expands the human potential for thought and evolution.
CE, by the way, has roots in Teilhard de Chardin's _Phenomenon of Man_.

Chardin, who is described here www.gaiamind.com/Teilhard.html as "a visionary French Jesuit, paleontologist, biologist, and philosopher, spent the bulk of his life trying to integrate religious experience with natural science, most specifically Christian theology with theories of evolution." He spoke eloquently for "the possibilities for humankind, which he saw as heading for an exciting convergence of systems, an -Omega point- where the coalescence of consciousness will lead us to a new state of peace and planetary unity. Long before ecology was fashionable, he saw this unity he saw as being based intrinsically upon the spirit of the Earth:

[quote]The Age of Nations is past. The task before us now, if we would not perish, is to build the Earth.[/quote]

He even coined a term, -noösphere-, to envisage what he believed to be "a new organ of consciousness," which he said was "analogous on a planetary level to the evolution of the cerebral cortex in humans. The noosphere is a "planetary thinking network" -- an interlinked system of consciousness and information, a global net of self-awareness, instantaneous feedback, and planetary communication." It does please the mind to be able to see both a bridge and a correlative between the mind and the planet. It reminds me of something Joseph Campbell related to us in The Power of Myth, that humans are the consciousness of the Earth.

I believe we are a consciousness and a medium for expression, indeed of the Earth, but surely even beyond that now as we explore further reaches of our universe or universes, from the nano and infinitessimal to the macro and infinite. Thus, it seems most reasonable to accept or entertain the notion that we have evolved the brain, mind, soul and heart to give us the capacity and the curiosity, the wonder, to reach beyond our grasp. Thankfully, de Chardin does not neglect the -heart-, writing that [quote]It is not our heads or our bodies which we must bring together, but our hearts. . . . Humanity. . . is building its composite brain beneath our eyes. May it not be that tomorrow, through the logical and biological deepening of the movement drawing it together, it will find its heart, without which the ultimate wholeness of its power of unification can never be achieved?[/quote]

The entire internet is like a noösphere, and it's like an extension of the brain which I can tap into like a memory and knowledge aide.

Also, you can find links to Phenomenon of Man at:
search.yahoo.com/search and www.google.com/search

Also, you can find links on Clarke's _Childhood's End_, including book reviews and a screenplay, at:
www.google.com/search

Sue

Just read a book called "Tremble + Ennui" by Edgar Nicaud. It was a quick refreshing read, simple yet fun, literary without really trying to be. It was like mouthwash for the brain.

Yes, Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Romance

I am reading "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri, which is a set of transfixing short-stories.