Are we all living in a planetary brain ? is Earth thinking ?

 

A human brain is a type of computer called a neural network, composed of about 100 billion neurons, each of which is connected to, on average, about 7,000 others via synapses. Neurons are cells that receive, process, and transmit information within the brain. Synapses are connections between neurons through which chemical and electrical messages are transmitted. All these neurons in our brains, constantly communicating with each other, ostensibly enable all the functions of our brain, including planning, memory, imagination, information processing, calculation, simulation, and every other aspect of thinking.  

The human race is like a neural network. Our planet has almost seven billion people walking around communicating with each other. We're each connected to thousands of other humans by relationships, through which we're constantly exchanging information, energy, chemicals, objects, etc. While neurons and humans may seem to bear little resemblance, from a computing perspective the global human network has a very similar architecture to a brain.

This raises the question - if we are able to think by virtue of our interacting neurons, and human civilization has the same basic architecture as a brain, then is Earth thinking? Relationships between people could be considered a direct analogy to synapses, and the transfer of information and matter between people could be considered analogous to neurons transmitting electrical and chemical messages to each other via synapses.

Was Douglas Adams right? Is Earth really a giant computer? Are we neurons in a planetary brain? Just think about it for a moment.