At the core of this vision of the global superbrain is a distributed hyper-rational intelligent artefact. The superbrain applies its intelligence to the bits where correctness is verifiable, artefacts can be trusted, and values are not concerned. People are needed to set the course, determine the objectives, ask the questions, and provide the sense of values determining the ends which logic helps to realise. Hyper-Rationality Involves the separation of analytic content as all that is FAcTual. It is a development of Hume's position which emphasises the benefits of a narrow conception of truth and a pragmatic attitude toward dealing effectively with our material environment.
Effective exploitation requires evolution in our understanding of science and engineering.
Political and economic considerations are crucial both to the engineering and the exploitation of the superbrain. Philosophy of Science Science may be regarded as a discipline concerned with the construction of mathematical models of aspects of our environment. It is a pluralistic discipline creating multiple models each judged on both aesthetic and pragmatic grounds. These models need not be perfect and need not agree among themselves, they cannot in the eye of a hyper-rational intelligence be regarded as FAcTual, on pain of incoherence. Philosophy of Engineering Engineering is a discipline which applies mathematical models developed mainly by science to the pragmatic business of making beneficial changes to our environment.