On Being A Noospheric Species

I was first introduced to Terrence Deacon through Human Energy's 10-week Science of the Noosphere Master Class in the summer of 2023, where he discussed major evolutionary transitions from the origin of life to the origin of human societies, and the future of humanity with David Sloan Wilson and Eörs Szathmáry. The major idea discussed is Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's conception of the noosphere, and that groups can evolve to become so co-dependent that they become super-organisms.

In the Science of the Noosphere Master Class video, Deacon recounts his initial influence of the semiotic theory of Charles Sanders Peirce. He also studied with Noam Chomsky, although they became strong opponents of each other's work. Later in the mid 1990s, Deacon encountered the work of Eörs Szathmáry and John Maynard Smith, which opened the door to start to consider the 20th century evolutionary, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

Here's the Abstract for Terry's presentation (above video) at Human Energy's N2 Conference on November 17, 2023: "Pierre Teilhard de Chardin argued that the human evolutionary process does not exhibit the pattern of diversification and specialization characteristic of biological evolution in general. Rather, it has a convergent character. This has parallels with the current recognition that there have been major transitions in evolution that have involved the coming together of once autonomous organisms to form highter older composite organisms, such as multicellular organisms like us. Symbolic communication (e.g., language) has contributed to this trend toward collective unification in humans because of the way it enables thoughts to be shared and cognition to be collaborative. Yet it is only possible if one is embedded in a cooperative social group that maintains this shared interpretive capacity. In this respect, humans have long been part of a collaborative mental process, a noosphere."

At a November 11, 2025, Human Energy Salon, Terry Deacon addressed the Alignment for a Major Evolutionary Transition: The Future of Humanity and AI, together with Athena Aktipis (Cooperative Futures Institute), Peter Fenton (Benchmark Capital), and Nichol Bradford (Human + Tech Week). Terry emphasized how the formation of language by one species after billions of years was a major evolutionary transition, and our collective unconscious is part of us as a mirror. When the parts become part of a larger whole, when they begin to cooperate because they need each other, that gives them an aligned value.

Terrence Deacon's first book, The Symbolic Species: The Coevolution of Language and the Brain (1998), focuses primarily on how the last of those transitions worked, drawing from Terry’s deep knowledge in many fields. In a more recent book, Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter (2011), Terry explored the emergence of end-directedness in both biological functions and mental processes. He is also interested in understanding the underlying cooperative processes that enable transitions to take place.

Terry has retired from his position as Professor of Anthropology at University of California, Berkeley. In Spring 2026, Terry and his wife, Ella moved to Rogue Valley Manor in southern Oregon. Welcome friends.