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by Gorilla from Boca Raton

Last Post 15 days, 20 hours Ago


THE INTERNET IS A BRAIN AND THE WEB IS ITS MIND
Mar 23, 2008 | 10:40 AM
Category: News
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Anyone familiar with the architecture and dynamics of the human nervous system cannot help but notice the striking similarity between the brain and the Internet. But is this similarity more than a coincidence - is the Internet really a brain in its own right - the brain of our planet? And is its collective behavior intelligent - does it constitute a global mind? How might this collective form of intelligence compare to that of an individual human mind, or a group of human minds?

I believe that the Internet (the hardware) is already evolving into a distributed global brain, and its ongoing activity (the software, humans and data) represents the cognitive process of an increasingly intelligent global mind. This global mind is not centrally organized or controlled, rather it is a bottom-up, emergent, self-organizing phenomenon formed from flows of trillions of information-processing events comprised of billions of independent information processors.

As with other types of emergent computing systems, for example John Conway’s familiar cellular automaton “The Game of Life,” on the Internet large scale homeostatic systems and seemingly intentional or guided information processes naturally emerge and interact within it. The emergence of sophisticated information systems does not require top-down design or control, it can happen in an evolutionary bottom-up manner as well.

Like a human brain, the Internet is a vast distributed computing network comprised of billions of interacting parallel processors. These processors include individual human beings as well as software programs, and systems of them such as organizations, which can all be referred to as "agents" in this system. Just as the computational power of the human brain as a whole is vastly greater than that of any of the individual neurons or systems within it, the computational power of the Internet is vastly beyond any of the individual agents it contains. Just as the human brain is not merely the sum of its parts, the Internet is more than the sum of its parts - like other types of distributed emergent computing systems, it benefits from the network effect. The power of the system grows exponentially as agents and connections between them are added.

The human brain is enabled by an infrastructure comprised of networks of organic neurons, dendrites, synapses and protocols for processing chemical and electrical messages. The Internet is enabled by an infrastructure of synthetic computers, communications networks, interfaces, and protocols for processing digital information structures. The Internet also interfaces with organic components however – the human beings who are connected to it. In that sense the Internet is not merely an inorganic system – it could not function without help from humans, for the moment at least. The Internet may not be organized in exactly the same form as the human brain, but it is at least safe to say it is an extension of it.

The brain provides a memory system for storing, locating and recalling information. The Internet also provides shared address spaces and protocols for using them. This enables agents to participate in collaborative cognition in a completely decentralized manner. It also provides a standardized shared environment in which information may be stored, addressed and retrieved by any agent of the system. This shared information space functions as the collective memory of the global mind.

Just as no individual neuron in the human brain could be said to have the same form or degree of intelligence as the brain as-a-whole - we individual humans cannot possibly comprehend the distributed intelligence that is evolving on the Internet. But we are part of it nonetheless, whether we know it or not.  The global mind is emerging all around us, and via us, is our creation but it is already becoming independent of us - truly it represents the evolution of a new form of meta-level intelligence that has never before existed on our planet.

Although we created it, the Internet is already far beyond our control or comprehension - it surrounds us and penetrates our world - it is inside our buildings, our tools, our vehicles, and it connects us together and modulates our interactions. As this process continues and the human body and biology begins to be networked into this system we will literally become part of this network - it will become an extension of our nervous systems and eventually, via brain-computer interfaces, it will be an extension of our senses and our minds. Eventually the distinction between humans and machines, and the individual and the collective, will gradually start to dissolve, along with the distinction between human and artificial forms of intelligence.

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Gorilla read my blog
Mar 23, 2008 | 10:43 AM

DISTRIBUTED INTELLIGENCE

The Semantic Web enables the formal communication of a higher level of language -- metalanguage. Metalanguage is language about language -- language that encodes knowledge about how to interpret and use information. Metalanguages – particularly semantic metalanguages for encoding relationships between information and systems of concepts – enable a new layer of communication and processing. The combination of computing networks with semantic metalanguages represents a major leap in the history of communication and intelligence.

The invention of written language long ago changed the economics of communication by making it possible for information to be represented and shared independently of human minds. This made it less costly to develop and spread ideas widely across populations in space and time. Similarly, the emergence of software based on semantic metalanguages will dramatically change the economics not only of information distribution, but of intelligence -- the act of processing and using information.

Semantic metalanguages provide a way to formally express, distribute and share the knowledge necessary to interpret and use information, independently of the human mind. In other words, they make it possible not just to write down and share information, but also to encode and share the background necessary for intelligently making use of that information. Prior to the invention of such a means to share this background knowledge about information, although information could be written and shared, the recipients of such information had to
Gorilla read my blog
Mar 23, 2008 | 10:44 AM

be intelligent and appropriately knowledgeable in advance in order to understand it. Semantic metalanguages remove this restriction by making it possible to distill the knowledge necessary to understand information into a form that can be shared just as easily as the information itself.

The recipients of information – whether humans or software – no longer have to know in advance (or attempt to deduce) how to interpret and use the information; this knowledge is explicitly coded in the metalanguage about the information. This is important for artificial intelligence because it means that expertise for specific domains does not have to be hard-coded into programs anymore -- instead programs simply need to know how to interpret the metalanguage. By adding semantic metalanguage statements to information data becomes “smarter,” and programs can therefore become “thinner.” Once programs can speak this metalanguage they can easily import and use knowledge about any particular domain, if and when needed, so long as that knowledge is expressed in the metalanguage.

In other words, whereas basic written languages simply make raw information portable, semantic metalanguages make knowledge (conceptual systems) and even intelligence (procedures for processing knowledge) about information portable. They make it possible for knowledge and intelligence to be formally expressed, stored digitally, and shared independently of any particular minds or programs. This radically changes the economics of communicating knowledge and of accessing and training intelligence. It makes it possible f
Gorilla read my blog
Mar 23, 2008 | 10:50 AM

for intelligence to be more quickly, easily and broadly distributed across time, space and populations of not only humans but also of software programs.

The emergence of standards for sharing semantic metalanguage statements that encode the meaning of information will catalyze a new era of distributed knowledge and intelligence on the Internet. This will effectively “make the Internet smarter.” Not just monolithic expert systems and complex neural networks, but even simple desktop programs and online software agents will begin to have access to a vast decentralized reserve of knowledge and intelligence.

The externalization, standardization and sharing of knowledge and intelligence in this manner, will make it possible for communities of humans and software agents to collaborate on cognition, not just on information. As this happens and becomes increasingly linked into our daily lives and tools, the "network effect" will deliver increasing returns. While today most of the intelligence on Earth still resides within human brains, In the near future, perhaps even within our lifetimes, the vast majority of intelligence will exist outside of human brains on the Semantic Web.


The Age of Aquarius, the water bearer.
The Age of the Earth. ^ -^
Gorilla read my blog
Mar 23, 2008 | 10:58 AM

MEMES ARE EVOLVING MINDS OF THEIR OWN

The evolution of our planetary intelligence has been taking place for billions of years -- it is a natural process, just like the evolution of human intelligence was long ago. The Semantic Web is merely the next step in this process whereby communicable ideas (memes), having already evolved technologies to externalize themselves outside the human mind (i.e. books, recording, software, the Web, etc.) are starting to evolve the ability to propagate intelligently and interact without human intervention. In other words, although today memes are for the most part completely immobile and static unless perceived within a human brain, with the advent of the Semantic Web the cognitive processes for running memes will begin to spread outside the human brain, enabling memes to "run" without depending on humans.

This emerging planet-wide collective mind, of which we will be but parts, will evolve higher level meta-processes and structures that will vastly exceed our comprehension. Indeed this is already starting to happen -- even today the self-organizing, chaotically emergent collective intelligence and information flows of the Internet exceed the power and understanding of any computer or brain on the planet. This new meta-level intelligence will be as far beyond human intelligence as the intelligence of the human brain is beyond that of its individual neurons.
Gorilla read my blog
Mar 23, 2008 | 10:59 AM

THE INFRASTRUCTURE OF DISTRIBUTED INTELLIGENCE

The development of the global mind depends on the evolution of distributed systems that function as the global equivalent of consciousness, memory, learning, perception, introspection, planning, creativity, and behavior.

Distributed intelligence requires the decentralization of information and computation. The World Wide Web is a key catalyst for this evolutionary leap. Before the Web there was no universally agreed-upon standard for publishing and accessing simple information - instead there were myriad incompatible, non-standardized competing proprietary formats. The lack of a common language made it difficult for applications to interoperate or understand one another's data without explicit integration.

The significance of the Web is that its underlying metalanguage standards - HTML and HTTP - enable more widespread, interoperable and decentralized content production and access. Making it possible for agents anywhere in the system to publish and make use of information by any other agents in the system is an essential ingredient of a distributed intelligence. The Web is literally a World Wide File System - it is the memory function of the global mind.
Gorilla read my blog
Mar 23, 2008 | 11:01 AM

The recently emerging Semantic Web adds yet another layer of sophistication beyond XML. It enables agents in the system to begin to understand and reason about the meaning of information within the system. The Semantic Web enables software to work not merely with data but with concepts. Concepts are information structures that are connected to formal systems of ideas – in other words they are meaningful information. The Semantic Web provides standards for transforming ordinary information structures into concepts that can be understood by software programs. Using metalanguages for defining semantics such as RDF and OWL, the Semantic Web makes it possible to connect data elements to concepts in formally defined systems of knowledge called ontologies. By doing this software programs are able to then reason intelligently about the information.

By connecting information to ontologies, programs can begin to process information more intelligently. For example, the content of a medical journal could be linked to a medical ontology that defines medical concepts and their interrelations. Using this ontology it would then be possible to do semantic searches of the journal that are far more intelligent than the primitive keyword searches that are currently used in most search systems today. A semantic search for “information about the vascular system" would return articles and data records that refer to the heart, even though the word "heart" was not explicitly searched for. Furthermore, a semantic search for "organs connected to the heart" could make logical inferences across ch
Gorilla read my blog
Mar 23, 2008 | 11:02 AM

logical inferences across chains of concepts in the underlying medical ontology in order to return articles about the lungs, the liver, the kidneys, the brain, etc., even though none of those organs were explicitly named in the original query.

Smarter searches are just one of the many benefits of the Semantic Web. Beyond such basic applications, the Semantic Web makes it possible for software to automatically learn, reason, make suggestions, and manage tasks and processes more intelligently. What's more, by providing a standardized language for describing systems of concepts and chains of reasoning, the Semantic Web makes it possible for programs to seamlessly share concepts and collaborate on reasoning tasks - in other words, it makes it possible not only for smarter computation within a given program, but it also enables smarter computation to take place between programs, making it possible for widespread distributed artificial intelligence to emerge on the Internet.
Gorilla read my blog
Mar 23, 2008 | 11:03 AM

THE EVOLUTION OF METALANGUAGE

The Semantic Web is based on a higher level of language -- metalanguage -- language about language. Metalanguage is a form of communication that enables parties to rigorously express and share information about the meaning of information. In fact, metalanguage has existed since the dawn of humanity. For example, in the case of spoken language, humans communicate metalanguage by using tone, gesture, inflection, volume, and facial expressions. These cues convey vital information about the meaning of what we are communicating, making it possible for those we communicate with to more easily understand us. In written language very simple forms of metalanguage have also been in use for quite some time, such as for example, the formatting of text, the use of footnotes and diagrams. The way text is organized on a page, and the particular typefaces and styles used also constitute metalanguage expressions about the meaning of the text.

The Semantic Web provides metalanguage specifications and technologies that vastly increase the bandwidth and sophistication of metalanguage communication for all forms of digital media. For example, using metalanguages such as XML, RDF and OWL, the Semantic Web makes it possible to encode arbitrarily detailed knowledge about the structure, meaning, state, connections, reliability, sentiment, and policies of arbitrary chunks of information. In other words, a document can be encoded with metalanguage that adds layers of additional knowledge about the information it contains. These layers of information augment the tex
Gorilla read my blog
Mar 23, 2008 | 11:05 AM

augment the text -- they may provide definitions, links to other resources, information about the organization of information within the document, logical relations among concepts in the document, details about the history and license terms of the document, annotations from other readers, and even rules for interpreting, reasoning about, or using the document. What is important here is that this metalanguage is expressed in a manner that machines can understand.

In effect, semantic metalanguage gives computers access to layers of knowledge that previously could only exist or be utilized within the human brain. By making this metalanguage explicit and by standardizing it, it becomes possible not only to communicate it effectively between humans, but also between humans and programs, and even between programs and other programs.
Gorilla read my blog
Mar 23, 2008 | 11:06 AM

If we look back to the dawn of humanity there was a time when humans were only able to communicate nonverbal or primitive verbal information. As richer forms of communication evolved sophisticated spoken languages and oral traditions emerged enabling the communication of more complex ideas. But spoken language had a major limitation - the distribution and access to information was dependent on being physically proximate enough to interact with particular individuals.

With the development of written languages however, it became possible to break through this limitation. Writing systems made it possible for ideas to be represented, stored and communicated independently of any particular individual, with less error, across greater distances in space and time than ever before. For the first time it was possible to learn something from someone else without them having to be present - anyone who could read the language and had sufficient background could interpret written characters into concepts. Next, with the advent of printing the economics of distributing and accessing written ideas reached a critical threshold of efficiency, enabling widely distributed communication and intellectual discourse.
Gorilla read my blog
Mar 23, 2008 | 11:07 AM

Centuries later another critical threshold was crossed with the invention of long-distance communications networks such as teletypes, telephones, radio and television. These technologies made communication faster, richer, broader, and more ubiquitous and accessible than ever before. As recorded and recordable media emerged even these rich media experiences could be experienced asynchronously anywhere and at any time.

Next, the emergence of computers and computer networks made it possible for communications and information processes to be increasingly automated. At this point we begin to see something new - while previously only information could be represented outside of the human brain now even primitive forms of intelligence (information processing) could be represented and conducted outside of the human brain. The Internet and the World Wide Web are the logical extension of this process - they make it possible to distribute and access information, and to connect information and processors together, more widely than ever before - but they still rely on humans for the most part.
Gorilla read my blog
Mar 23, 2008 | 11:08 AM

Without humans the Internet and Web of today would be nothing but a collection of relatively static information and dumb computer systems. But XML and the Semantic Web will change that by providing metalanguages that make it possible for humanlike intelligence to being to evolve and function outside of human brains. With advent of metalanguages humans are no longer necessary to create or interpret information. These technologies will enable the Web to actively and intelligently process information without human participation.

Metalanguages such as HTML, XML, RDF and OWL enable knowledge about information to be formally encoded into the information itself. As increasing levels of knowledge about data is encoded into the data, the data becomes more independent of humans - it can be used by any agent anywhere.
Sageman read my blog
Mar 23, 2008 | 11:31 AM

Interesting theory. I would have to say the similarities look good on paper but comparing the internet to the brain is still way off.

The brain handles more than just information, it processes emotions, and formulates it's own reactions to ideas based on more than just the logical outcome of data.

The internet will never have a heart or feel emotions. Thus it is more comparable to someone who is brain dead, it no longer feels any emotions but the body still processes the biological functions of the body. The memories are there but the process of accessing them is no longer there due to the fact that the brain no longer has the analytical processes needed to comprehend the elements of the mind that convert information into more complex elements such as emotions.

I did enjoy reading your theory though. Well presented and informative.
Gorilla read my blog
Mar 23, 2008 | 12:56 PM

Explaining the biological aspects of the machine will never compare to explaining consciousness.In that sense the Internet is not merely an inorganic system – it could not function without help from humans, for the moment at least. The Internet may not be organized in exactly the same form as the human brain, but it is at least safe to say it is an extension of it.
Can a machine gain consciousness? Or will it?
Destroy Skynet...lol It became self-aware in 2012 right?

Please read the "Perfection of Consciousness" post its a pretty good theory on the question of consciousness as a whole.

The logical reaction to ideas is actually starting to happen. Theres a search engine in the works.
Trueknowledge.com
Pretty cool stuff, you should check out the video at the site.
"Direct answers to human and machine questions."
Glad you enjoyed the post.
Gorilla read my blog
Mar 23, 2008 | 1:01 PM

Its information from the blog
"Minding the Planet"
http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/> Lots of interesting stuff. ^ -^
northton read my blog view my photos
Mar 24, 2008 | 3:19 AM

Sageman, what exactly ARE emotions? I believe computers will have emotions just as real as our own some day. I just hope the net doesn't throw a tantrum when it gets angry. You wouldn't like it when it gets angry. ;)

All things are natural. The web is only a tool right now but someday it may evolve into a living being with thoughts of its own.
RNC08 read my blog view my photos
Mar 24, 2008 | 6:25 AM

The net in this contexts is extremely interesting, when viewed as an evolving for of “AI” it brings up a number of questions . For the first time we are able to see an example of a truly “new” and unique type of intellectual structure , the “net” is a “hive mind” or collective intelligence much like that found in insect colonies but what is new and interesting is that the individuals in this “collective” where not born to or hard wired to the system they are a part of (they maintain individuality) ...it will be interesting to watch as this system evolves , it already affects all of our lives and is far to big for anyone to kill or even control
Gorilla read my blog
Mar 31, 2008 | 6:18 PM

P2P downloading is using the swarm to take full advantage with torrents.
When the collective intelligence of humans is outside of human intelligence, the veil of ignorance cast on society will hopefully be lifted.
bluehorseblues read my blog view my photos
Apr 13, 2008 | 9:50 PM

Very powerful. I do think your theory is very interesting. When you look at how young the web is in the big picture it really isn't to hard to believe that it too will evolve, become more intelligent, possibly become emotional. It really puts new meaning into the collective mind theories. It makes me wonder too since all of the information that builds the collective intelligence comes from humans. What would we do if it became a religious mind that defied all of our belief systems so far? Would a collective idea of religion be bad or good considering everything that would be fed into the collective intelligence is coming from billions of personal interpretations of it?

{Destroy Skynet...lol It became self-aware in 2012 right?}
I never caught that....scary since everything seems to stop there!!!!!. lol I am going to have to watch those movies all over again now...I want to know what the exact date it is that skynet becomes aware.
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Gorilla

Think of me as our inner ape.

Member Since: 3/14/2008


 

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