Will the Internet Evolve into a Lifeform?

Num7

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Will the Internet Evolve into a Lifeform?

Terminator, The Matrix, what if the future was about to be like these movies depict it ?
Some think that sentience could emerge from any sufficiently complicated system. By the way, you're reading this on a massively-crosslinked network built from millions of routers, allowing any of a billion individual units to access, modify and reply to the others. Interested?

Computer programs are already exhibiting many of the characteristics of organic lifeforms, up to and including evolution - hilarious, since they're the only things that really are "Intelligently Designed" - and there's no reason to believe that life or awareness are exclusively organic attributes. You could say we've only ever seen chemical-based constructs which are alive, but in the past the same argument could have been applied to things moving under their own power, flight or the ability to count - and it turns out we've built machines that are sort of far better at all those things than the fleshy equivalents. If there is a magic "life-chemical" mixed in with all the blood and guts, we haven't found it.

Others would object that only beings with souls can ever be truly alive, but such people rarely have anything useful (or even sensible) to say on the subjects of evolution or technology and so can be safely ignored.

The question is now what form this life would take. While the movies teach us that evil cybernetic intelligences are created in military research labs, with the occasional time-traveling component mixed in, the most likely environment is wherever has the greatest connectivity, diversity and sheer quantity of data flow. That's right, the internet.

One route is the evolution of electronic intelligences in situations like the internet-arms race between spammers and shielders. It might sound silly, the idea that new life could be created in an attempt to offer you a great deal on C1@Lis!!, but have you tried registering for a forum recently? Even gaining access to the lowest level of interaction online now requires elementary Turing tests to tell the humans from the robots.

Another option is the idea of the net itself becoming sentient, a vast self-modifying array of connections and information storage with limited connections to the outside world (kind of like that glob of grey goo you carry around in your skull). If that happens then Gibson help us all - remember that the net is made of about 90% spam, 9% porn, and quite a lot of whining blogs. If that mixture ever becomes self-aware we're not quite sure what it'll do, but the odds are against it being anything good.
Via The Daily Galaxy
 
Re: Will the Internet Evolve into a Lifeform?

What a trip....I only imagined computers/robots only becoming self aware with the help of living tissue. But..who knows. Maybe thats why I agree that only something with a soul can only be truly alive.
But theres Cheney and Rove and other soul~less bastards so I guess one can be alive without a soul!
All in all I bet there will be a time when we start to get afraid of what machines can do on their own.....:eek:
 

Re: Will the Internet Evolve into a Lifeform?

I don't think a machine will ever be able to think.
It will just use it's logic and do stuff, it will never think and have free will, it will only react to events, like a program, because it's what it will always be.
 

Re: Will the Internet Evolve into a Lifeform?

Numenorean7 said:
I don't think a machine will ever be able to think.
It will just use it's logic and do stuff, it will never think and have free will, it will only react to events, like a program, because it's what it will always be.

Actually I do believe that we are now very close to self aware machines. Once we get into the quantum computer technology we can have computers building computers which are actually much more complex as the human brain. I am very sure that at one moment with sufficient complexity self awareness will take place. If that happens heaven help all of us.
Regards
 
Re: Will the Internet Evolve into a Lifeform?

How can self awareness be created artificially ? I mean ok, a machine can say "I am self aware" if it's told to. But is this machine self aware the way we are ?

If this ever happens, how does self awareness takes place in AI. I can't answer this one.

Num7
 
Re: Will the Internet Evolve into a Lifeform?

What if we combine living tissue...brain tissue with computers..I wonder if they will evolve.....holy crap.
 
Re: Will the Internet Evolve into a Lifeform?

We would need to create a brain from scratch, and find a way to keep it alive, and make it evolve and learn. Then, we need to plug it on the computer/robot. We're really far from this.
 
Re: Will the Internet Evolve into a Lifeform?

yeah but dont computers already have their brain? Wait...there is no way that a computer brain could do what ours does right? Someone would have to program it all right? Yeah, I guess it is a long way off...I just keep thinking of Hal from 2000 space oddessy....
 
Re: Will the Internet Evolve into a Lifeform?

The only way not to truly program it would be to create a program that could learn.
It must be very complex and hard in both cases.
I programmed some games in college that could study how you play, and learn from it's mistake, that was easy. In the end, the game knew all its winning moves, and the way to beat yours.
Now, imagine the AI needed to learn about everything in real life. That's unimaginable :eek:

Num7
 
Re: Will the Internet Evolve into a Lifeform?

I think at best these computers wouldnt have too many emotions...thats almost worse than haveing ALL of them! What if the computer was programmed to only do certain things..like harm certain people that would be BAD! That would be a smart computer but with only half a brain...scary...
 

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