Noosphere
<p>The <b>noosphere</b> (<a title="Help:IPA for English" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English">/</a><a title="Help:IPA for English" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English#Key">ˈnoʊ.ɵsfɪər</a><a title="Help:IPA for English" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_English">/</a>; sometimes <b>noösphere</b>) is a concept used by <a title="Vladimir Vernadsky" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Vernadsky">Vladimir Vernadsky</a><sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosphere#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup> and <a title="Teilhard de Chardin" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teilhard_de_Chardin">Teilhard de Chardin</a> to denote the "<a title="Theory of mind" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_mind">sphere</a> of human thought".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosphere#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup> The word derives from the <a title="Greek language" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_language">Greek</a> νοῦς (<a title="Nous" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nous">nous</a> "<a title="Mind" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind">mind</a>") and σφαῖρα (sphaira "<a title="Sphere" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere">sphere</a>"), in lexical analogy to "<a title="Atmosphere of Earth" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth">atmosphere</a>" and "<a title="Biosphere" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosphere">biosphere</a>".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosphere#cite_note-3">[3]</a></sup> It was introduced by <a title="Pierre Teilhard de Chardin" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin">Pierre Teilhard de Chardin</a> in 1922<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosphere#cite_note-4">[4]</a></sup> in his <i><a title="Cosmogenesis" class="mw-redirect" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmogenesis">Cosmogenesis</a></i>.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosphere#cite_note-5">[5]</a></sup> Another possibility is the first use of the term by <a title="Édouard Le Roy" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89douard_Le_Roy">Édouard Le Roy</a> (1870-1954), who together with <a title="Pierre Teilhard de Chardin" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin">Teilhard</a> was listening to lectures of Vladimir Vernadsky at the <a title="University of Paris" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Paris">Sorbonne</a>. In 1936 Vernadsky accepted the idea of the noosphere in a letter to <a title="Boris Leonidovich Lichkov (page does not exist)" class="new" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Boris_Leonidovich_Lichkov&action=edit&redlink=1">Boris Leonidovich Lichkov</a> (though he states that the concept derives from Le Roy).<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noosphere#cite_note-6">[</a></sup></p>