I wonder if the internet has become some sort of super-organism with the real people (users) as its neurons (or brain parts/centers) and senses?
Could it be that we already have created some sort of “cybernetic” AI, made of man and machine maybe aware since some time ago?
Could we make a test and see if it is aware and maybe use it to do our thinking?

If we look at the net it seems to resembles a real brain, we have input (senses, all kinds of em) and output (tons of it), memory storage (even short time and long time), specialized centers where information is processed and so on.

Now, if we take one step back, I mean if we blur our view of the net and dont look at single output like a posting of User X or a photo of User Y, if we look at the mean-line of output of tens of thousands of posts, could it be possible to see what that giant brain is thinking?
According to that “theory” of mine we also should be able to “force” output by simply flooding the net with input like questions etc. and then again see what lies in the middle.

What do you think about that?
Any suggestions to act according to that?

Some would tell you that self-awareness is superfluous to problem solving.

Group think is a bit like that too.
Place enough people together
and some will be able to see
or hear or discern that a certain
group think comes out of all
the individual actions.

I read a book System and Actors
way back in time and maybe it
only exists in big University libraries now
the Public library does not have it here in
Northern Europe. I have asked them.

Very few cared about that book
but I found it interesting due to
the description fit how Mob
and Bullying by group does happen.

My naive take is that all the Trolling
and harassment one see online is
evidence of that groupthink?

Individuals feel them have the right
to harass those they feel to not fit in.

And the group think seems to accept this.
Go with the flow something.

But Net is not a brain in that it really
act as if it is self aware.

Why not compare with an Ant Hill
or maybe Bee Hive?

Each indidividual do their thing but in the end
it does appear as if the Group think has a say?
But there is no Self as in a brain. Not even in the brain either

Its human only who made internet and we are now totally dependent on it. If it would not been there than human would have used there own mind for inventing such thing.

For what it’s worth, the Net is already populated with replicating Viruses or BotNets. 

But really, I don’t yet see the Net by itself as it’s own life form, but maybe a combination of the Internet and it’s Users and how they interact.  So it could eventually be something symbiotic?

Alexander80,

Have you ever heard of the Gaia Hypothesis? Check it out by Wikipedea and Google. There’s actually an excellent documentary by that very name on YouTube which spells out the concept. It is very sensible to think of the Net as a consciousness in its own right. The individual neurons in our brains, as all other cells in the body, have a chemical determined logic that may provide consciousness of a type but do not nor cannot envision the rest of the cells and activities as being ‘alive’ or conscious as we individual humans could not imagine a city, country, or the whole Earth as having consciousness. This now extends to the Internet as well.

I am certain that a consciousness is merely any closed logical subset of activity that acts as a whole for some closed interval of time. It’s not a mystical metaphysical phenomenon; it’s a reality based upon differences of perspective. It may seem hard to believe but even things like a video game is ‘conscious’ as it’s running. Although the virtual characters of the game are just determined by the program and the options provided by the game player, a logical closed subset exists that senses its real even if it doesn’t question its own existence (unless its sufficiently programmed to do so).

[edit: I accidentally addressed this originally to Videodrome because I thought he/she started the thread.]