As AI algorithms get more and more complex there's a chance that one of them, or a combination of these algorithms is designed to learn and evolve on its own. The internet could indeed be considered a lifeform; vast amounts of information are transmitted daily and most of it is automated in the sense that there are inputs and it produces outputs with little human interference. I believe the more relevant question is "Could the Internet become self-aware?"
I believe there's a good chance that this could happen if self-learning and evolving algorithms are introduced into the internet. There's an even wider question to be asked. If several of these 'entities' become self aware and start growing to make parts of the web integral to their existence and if they continue to expand, what happens when two or more of these entities meet?

I was thinking the other day...what if the data from collections of various webpages viewed in binary where used as software.

The binary data of this thread/page could contain bits of data that form part of a larger software (program). Sort of like a P2P system.

Which lead me to wonder, could an AI store itself in this manner? Since the data is stored on a range of machines, it would not need it's own storage and if a page with bits where changed or removed, there are cache servers all over to recover those required bits of data.

Interesting stuff for sure.

[edit on 11-6-2009 by warrenb]

Since internet is mostly made of porn and 4chan, I do not think this new entity would be something to worry about.

no because its not organic. nor is it born, nor does it have self awareness, nor can it think.

I figure that the consciousness of the internet will evolve from super computers powered by AI that the government uses to monitor the internet.

It's impossible. The internet is just a bunch of cables connecting computers together. It doesn't have "intelligence" however some government server could one day sap all of the knowledge of the internet and be programmed to be intelligent.

I think the Internet could be used as an environment for programs to form intelligence. I guess that depends on your definition of intelligence as well.

Ants individually are not that intelligent, but the colony as a whole exhibits a greater intelligence (basically a super-organism). When a forager finds food it leaves a pheromone trail back to the colony. Ants will follow that trail when they come across enough foragers at home, and will strengthen the pheromone trail. When the food is gone, they stop leaving the trail. A simple process. But ants are full of small processes like this one, which when put together form intelligence.

Similarly, all the cells in our body work together and follow simple processes to perform complex tasks.

The Internet can be thought of like a 'world' for web applications. Maybe with enough communication and processes, a really complicated system of applications might seem to have a type of intelligence. Really, they wouldn't be thinking for themselves though, the same way ants don't think for themselves.

I think more likely and scary is a virus written with the ability to adapt and communicate with copies of itself. When a programmer successfully writes a program that can learn, then we'll have our work cut out for us.


[edit on 11-6-2009 by Nickmare]

I DO think that it could be POSSIBLE. ANYTHING is possible.

I have done a lot of research into ways to improve my memory so I could do Math better than the very basic simple 10th grade math that I struggled through in High School.

What I have learned in my exploration about memory and specifically HUMAN memory and how we process information is REMARKABLE!

How it has been said that the human mind works is that when you go to say, Ride a Bike your thoughts are along the lines of possibly THOUSANDS of different thoughts all coming together at once. There is one section of your brain that stores information on bike safety, another section that stores information on weight shifting, another section of the brain that stores information on what your bike looks like, another on how it operates mechanically, another section that has information on wind resistance against different types of clothing that you have worn when riding a bike etc. etc.

All of this different information is compartmentalized, kind of like a web page. When you go to ride the bike somehow it all gets "pinged" and accessed and sent to a central processor that sorts it and compiles it all in such a rapid speed as to be unnoticeable!

What is creepy is when you consider the thought of yourself.

You, yourself as a thought are composed of thousands of different thoughts of yourself. What your appearance is, what your Body Odor is like, your preferred clothing dress style, your food tastes, your possessions, your preferences in politics, relationships. All of these thoughts of yourself are again compartmentalized and when you THINK of yourself you are accessing thousands of different thoughts of yourself instantly and putting them together into one single coherent thought.

There are estimates anywhere from 10-100 BILLION Neurons all connected together in a miniature brain interwebs.

Maybe if we had 100 billion computers all connected together with a central computer processing all of the web pages together with the right set of programming on the super computer we could mimic Human Intelligence.

Well- what would be the trigger? And why isnt it already triggered so? Isnt there enough information?