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World Brain is the title of a book of essays by English author H.G. Wells, written in 1938.

One essay titled "The Idea of a Permanent World Encyclopaedia" first appeared in the new Encyclopédie française, August, 1937.

The essay "The Brain Organization of the Modern World" lays out Wells' vision for "...a sort of mental clearing house for the mind, a depot where knowledge and ideas are received, sorted, summarized, digested, clarified and compared." (p. 49) Wells felt that technological advances such as microfilm could be utilized towards this end so that "any student, in any part of the world, will be able to sit with his projector in his own study at his or her convenience to examine any book, any document, in an exact replica." (p. 54) A similar view of an automated system for making all of humanity's knowledge available to all had been proposed a few years earlier by Paul Otlet, one of the founders of information science.

Wells had been involved with the socialist Fabian Society, the League of Nations, and the International PEN, and his intent for World Brain was no less than helping to solve what he termed the World Problem, i.e. the possibility of the mutual destruction of nations in a World War. Wells has been both praised for envisioning an educational knowledge network (not unlike the Internet and World Wide Web) and criticized for proposing what to some amounts to a New World Order. His concept of a "world brain" has more recently been revived by others in the guise of the global brain.

• Wells, H.G. (1938). World Brain. Meuthuen & Co. Limited.
• "The Idea of a Permanent World Encyclopaedia": Contribution by H. G. Wells to the new Encyclopédie Française, August, 1937, also here
• World Brain: H. G. Wells on the future of world education (1994) London: Adamantine Press. ISBN 0-7449-0114-6
• "H.G. Wells’s Idea of a World Brain: A Critical Re-Assessment" by Boyd Rayward

	v • d • e  H. G. Wells
Books	Floor Games · Little Wars · A Modern Utopia · The New World Order · The Open Conspiracy · The Outline of History · Russia in the Shadows · The Science of Life · The Shape of Things to Come · The Stolen Bacillus and Other Incidents · Travels of a Republican Radical in Search of Hot Water · World Brain
Novels	Ann Veronica · The First Men in the Moon · The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth · The History of Mr. Polly · The Invisible Man · The Island of Dr Moreau · Kipps · Love and Mr Lewisham · Men Like Gods · The Sleeper Awakes · Star-Begotten · The Time Machine · Tono-Bungay · The War in the Air · The War of the Worlds · The Wheels of Chance · The World Set Free
Short Stories	The Chronic Argonauts · The Country of the Blind · The Crystal Egg · The Land Ironclads · The Man Who Could Work Miracles · The Red Room · The Stolen Body · A Story of the Days To Come · A Vision of Judgment
Works	The Man Who Could Work Miracles · Things to Come

• International PEN