A term coined by Teilhard de Chardin, defined as a non-material sheath that surrounds the earth, containing all of humanity's cultural achievements.

The portion of the biosphere which is affected by human activity.

The noosphere can be seen as the "sphere of human thought" being derived from the Greek νους ("nous") meaning "mind" in the style of "atmosphere" and "biosphere". In the original theory of Vernadsky, the noosphere is the third in a succession of phases of development of the Earth, after the geosphere (inanimate matter) and the biosphere (biological life). Just as the emergence of life fundamentally transformed the geosphere, the emergence of human cognition fundamentally transforms the biosphere.

a maximal Noosystem in the sense that it is not contained in any other Noosystem as a part