The Internet as an Entity

During a conversation over breakfast, I spoke to a gentleman about the entity that is the Internet. His theory is that the Internet as a whole acts like a neural network. Each computer is like a synapse sending out electrical signals, like emails, chat messages, or even when I upload this blog, creating more electrical impulses that create growth in this great entity. It is much like our own brains, they grow and develop by learning new things. But the things we learn themselves are not what cause this development; it is the electrical impulses that are caused by our experiences that create growth. So, if we send an email, a blog post, or a chat message we are creating yet another of the billions of impulses that this great network receives every day.

What does this mean?

• The notion that we can consciously create a successful artificial intelligence may be incorrect. It means that artificial intelligence must evolve, much like our own, from something that merely exists into something that is self-aware. However, in this case, since the nature of technology is fast paced, this process will happen very over the course of a few decades rather than millions of years.

• We may not be able to recognize it as artificial intelligence, nor will it be able to recognize us as a form of intelligence. It may exist as a self-aware being, stimulated by simulated impulses that are as real to it as a hug or a handshake or a snowy morning is to us.

• This artificial intelligence is a culmination of all the electrical experiences that it receives from the entire world. It isn't necessarily important what we do and have done to create this entity, but it is the fact that we have; all of us. It will be an entity that has evolved almost purely from thought; from the thoughts of all of the minds who are here.