In the early 20th century, two thinkers—Russian geochemist Vladimir Vernadsky and French Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin—imagined a moment when humanity’s collective consciousness would crystallize into a new planetary layer: the noosphere, from the Greek nous, meaning “mind.” A web of thought enveloping the globe, driven by shared knowledge, science, and a spiritual awakening.
Today, the noosphere is no longer speculation. It is orbiting above us, pulsing through the algorithms of our digital platforms. And it is being weaponized in real time. Its arrival has not ushered in global unity but cognitive warfare. Its architecture is not governed by democracies or international institutions but by a handful of unaccountable actors.
But rather than a universal awakening, we are witnessing fragmentation, manipulation, and control. The most literal manifestation of the noosphere today is Starlink, SpaceX’s low Earth orbit satellite constellation of 6,000+ satellites that changed the nature of war, enabling Ukrainian communications after Russia attacked its telecom infrastructure. Yet Starlink isn’t a neutral utility. It’s privately owned, and decisions about where and how it functions are made by Elon Musk, not by any government or international body. Starlink is creating a new kind of global infrastructure—the nervous system of the noosphere—outside the control of any elected government. And that nervous system is being contested, both overtly and subtly.
A 2023 RAND Corporation report issued a stark warning: authoritarian regimes—especially Russia and China—are exploiting digital systems to wage what RAND calls “cognitive warfare” (RAND, 2023), where narrative is the primary weapon. Fact-checking and transparency are insufficient defenses when memes, deepfakes, and coordinated influence campaigns spread faster than reason can respond.
This is what political scientists call sharp power—the ability to subvert and manipulate open societies through the same freedoms that make them vulnerable. The noosphere, with its interconnected thought streams and real-time communication, is the perfect terrain for its deployment.
Russia, in particular, has mastered this form of warfare. From interference in U.S. elections to disinformation, the Kremlin has weaponized narrative as a geopolitical tool. Enter Donald Trump, whose second term, aligned with Musk’s platform X (formerly Twitter) and sympathetic to Putin’s strongman model, threatens to fuse political, technological, and ideological forces into a single, disruptive cognitive front.
This is not a formal alliance—but it is ideological and tactical. All three challenge traditional democratic norms. All three use media (or control platforms) to shape perception and bypass institutional gatekeepers. And all three have shown a willingness to disrupt geopolitical order for personal or national gain.
Their convergence has tangible implications for the noosphere. Trump undermines the credibility of democratic institutions and the press. Musk enables unmoderated information flows and has curtailed moderation and safety teams at X. Putin funds disinformation and cyberwarfare campaigns that infect the infosphere with confusion and chaos.
In short: they are converging to shape the noosphere in their image.
What we’re witnessing is the emergence of a digital empire without borders, governed by influence, infrastructure, and ideology. The tragedy of the current moment is not just that these actors hold power—but that democracies have failed to adapt. There is still no global framework for managing cognitive conflict. No institution meaningfully governs planetary-scale digital infrastructure. No coherent strategy exists to counter sharp power in the noosphere.
And so the noosphere—once imagined as the culmination of human progress—is becoming a contested zone, shaped not by collective wisdom but by whoever has the tools to dominate it.
Whose noosphere will prevail? Will it be the one envisioned by Vernadsky and Teilhard—open, cooperative, and transcendent? Or will it be a noosphere of surveillance, fragmentation, and control, shaped by the agendas of the powerful? As RAND warns, the decisive question is no longer “whose army wins?” but “whose story wins?”
What is needed is a deeper, institutionalized federation among democratic nations that can pool sovereignty in the digital domain, establish shared norms, and project a coherent, values-driven strategy against authoritarian encroachment. There is new urgency—not only to defend against external threats but to preserve the very conditions under which free thought, deliberation, and truth can survive in the 21st century.
Joe Trippi is the Chairman and Co-Founder of Sez.us a a reputation-based social media platform. Trippi was a renowned Democratic political strategist, best known for managing Howard Dean’s groundbreaking 2004 presidential campaign, which pioneered online grassroots organizing.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a“ Steel Across America” event ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11th attacks on the Ellipse near the White House on Sept. 8, 2026 in Washington, D.C. President Trump welcomed 9/ 11 first responders to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’ s“ Steel Across America” event featuring a 16,900- pound, 21- foot steel beam recovered.
For Trump, even 9/11 is an opportunity
There was a reason organizers of the 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan told President Trump he could not speak at this year’s memorial service.
A good one, it turns out.
Because in a speech he gave on Tuesday in Washington, he did exactly what they were presumably worried about — he made it about himself.
According to The New York Times, Trump had wanted a speaking role at the service, but the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which oversees the site, said no, as they’ve maintained for the past decade-plus that the venue and event should be nonpartisan.
Trump has long used awful tragedies to either puff himself up, trash political opponents, or sell lies to the American people.
He blamed a deadly plane crash at Washington National Airport last year on diversity, equity and inclusion policies. He blamed Puerto Ricans for the devastation they endured after Hurricane Maria in 2017. He reportedly considered withholding disaster relief after the California wildfires based on the way affected regions voted. In an interview on Fox News meant to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, he used the occasion to slam former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi…with graves of the dead behind him.
And now, as we approach the 25th anniversary of what many New Yorkers consider the darkest day in modern history, Trump has done it again.
He told a rambling, nonsensical story — one he’s told before — about going to Ground Zero just after terrorists flew two commercial jets into the twin towers. In the story, which no one has been able to verify, despite multiple attempts, he says firefighters had to carry him out of One Liberty Plaza, also known as the U.S. Steel Building, because they thought it was about to collapse.
As CNN fact checker Daniel Dale notes, there’s no evidence Trump went into this building, especially at a time when NYPD and NYFD had locked down the area. There’s no evidence that building was collapsing — in fact, it was deemed structurally sound and reopened within two months of the attacks. There’s no evidence he was carried out of it by firefighters.
But the lie isn’t even the worst part. Pretend it was all true — why would the leader of our country, and a New Yorker, decide to make that tragic day about himself?
Because that’s who Donald Trump is. He’s a malignant narcissist.
He’s also, incidentally, a terrible and ineffectual president, who’s made ill-fated decisions that he has to keep defending, and there’s nothing he won’t do to make himself look and feel better.
Within the first two minutes of his speech, he was cravenly using 9/11 to justify and promote his dumb war in Iran — two events separated by 25 years and 6,000 miles.
“And I will tell you, we’re right now fighting because we have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it, and now they have no chance at getting it. They will never have a nuclear weapon. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. And they’ve been punished greatly. As you know, we’ve really taken it to them.”
As a New Yorker who lived through 9/11, still one of the worst days of my life, I’m utterly sickened by Trump’s crass, political, and self-promotional framing of that awful day.
And I’m relieved he won’t be given a platform to do it again on Friday’s anniversary in lower Manhattan.
Because for Trump, everything is his for the taking, and absolutely nothing is sacred.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.