Read more: Eight things you didn鈥檛 know about the internet
Yes, if we play our cards right 鈥� or wrong, depending on your perspective.
In engineering terms, it is easy to see qualitative similarities between the human brain and the internet鈥檚 complex network of nodes, as they both hold, process, recall and transmit information. 鈥淭he internet behaves a fair bit like a mind,鈥� says , chair of the , an organisation inevitably based in cyberspace. 鈥淚t might already have a degree of consciousness鈥�.
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Not that it will necessarily have the same kind of consciousness as humans: it is unlikely to be wondering who it is, for instance. To , who studies consciousness and artificial intelligence at the Free University of Brussels (VUB) in Belgium, consciousness is merely a system of mechanisms for making information processing more efficient by adding a level of control over which of the brain鈥檚 processes get the most resources. 鈥淎dding consciousness is more a matter of fine-tuning and increasing control鈥� than a jump to a wholly different level,鈥� Heylighen says.
How might this manifest itself? Heylighen speculates that it might turn the internet into a self-aware network that constantly strives to become better at what it does, reorganising itself and filling gaps in its own knowledge and abilities.
If it is not already semiconscious, we could do various things to help wake it up, such as requiring the net to monitor its own knowledge gaps and do something about them. It shouldn鈥檛 be something to fear, says Goertzel: 鈥淭he outlook for humanity is probably better in the case that an emergent, coherent and purposeful internet mind develops.鈥�
Heylighen agrees, but warns that we might find it a little disappointing. 鈥淲e probably would not notice a whole lot of a difference, initially,鈥� he says.
And when might this begin? According to Heylighen, it all depends on internet fashion trends. If the effort that has gone into developing social networking sites goes into developing internet consciousness, it could happen within a decade, he says.
