A rough chronicle of World Brain (WB) 

 1940s  WB as a rapid selector of microfilms
 1950s  WB as a fancy selector of mechatronics, for information retrieval! 
 1960s  WB as a citation web
 1970s  WB as a concept map
 1980s  WB as a card deck, encyclopedic 
 1990s  WB as a worldwide network for advertising (sadly misguided!)
 2000s  WB as a world politics