Can the internet evolve into a lifeform?

reply to post by Saurus


All too true. Yesterdy there ware two people trying to convince me they were aliens. If someone comes up and tells me it is a bot i would not be convinced.
I would need proof.
How would you tell if it is not a person pretending? Any answers?
I would ask it to do something to my computer. like change my wallpaper or something.

Just because a bot might be intelligent, it doesn't mean it's a good hacker.

Turin proposed that a computer should be defined as intelligent if you could ask it any question, and its answer would be indistinguishable from that of a human.

If we accept that proposal (which I think is a very valid proposal), the best test would be to discuss something with it on this forum. The proof would be right in front of your eyes, but hidden in broad daylight.

I think if a computer has the intelligence of any human, it too is intelligent. The average person couldn't hack your computer. Why should an intelligent bot?

I don't think it's fair to expect a computer to have the intelligence of God. Wouldn't the intelligence of an average human be enough?

[edit on 12/6/2009 by Saurus]

reply to post by Saurus


Yea i guess your right. We would hve to keep our eyes open to spot any computers in human guise lol. Now its REALLY reminding me of the cylons!


I wonder what such an entity would think of humanity?

reply to post by raptorinvictus

What kind of life form do you mean exactly? Like one that has free will? one that can think and respond to stimuli? One that can reproduce and spread it genes code whatever? Or one that simply has a consciousness? I think that some of these traits ( replication, response to stimuli and consciousness) and be seen in a very VERY basic form on the net already spyware replicated in you computer which came from a site who responded to you doing a certain set of steps. However the difference between that and what we or animals experience is two different thing So 2 questions raise out of this 1 If it did become a entity would we have to give it right like we do for people and animals? and 2 IDK Did anyone see this discovery channel special on AI about a guy who invented a program that has AI green blocks that basically eat these different colored blocks and it is in their programming that they have to eat these block or there code will stop replicating and in essence die. There was some arbitrary time frame set that their intelligence would evolve to where the individual green block would start to would together and form a primitive sense of a society. I think the show had something to do with doomsday and the different ways humanity could be wiped out I would have never thought it would be Green blocks who knew

reply to post by blackpheonix


I think we should be looking for something that has basic consciousness and is self aware.
That is what the beginning would be. Everything would come after that as it decides to do something with itself. I would imagine self preservation would be important as well.
Curiosity would be nice too!
But yeah......these things are out impression of life. For all we know it could be very different.

[edit on 12-6-2009 by raptorinvictus]

reply to post by raptorinvictus

I think this is an excellent question. If you take a look at the evolution of life which started as slime in a puddle of water...then it may have developed a nervous system much like the internet looks as a whole. At some point during the evolution of said slime the creature developed a conscience(self awareness). In my opinion eventually it could develop into a life form but that would probably a long time from now.

reply to post by CaptGizmo


Well life did take a long time to evolve but that time included the evolution of complex systems from nothing.
As for the internet it seems to be a lot less complex compared to the universe itself and its evolving at a much faster rate.
I think that all the groundwork is laid down all that is needed is n event to spark off a consciousness.
Maybe a video game will conflict with a spyware program. who knows?

Also i dont really want to raise this topic because i am not to sure weather its plausible but it might fit with the Timewave Zero theory as well with the whole thing of accelerated events happening. Any takers?

Think about this one for a sec......the internet is a global thing(nervous system)..if it develops a conscience then technically we human beings would be giving true life to the planet. That would make us it's building blocks of life if you will.

We humans have the ability to give or take away life these day's....sounds a lot like a building block of life to me...just on a different scale.

reply to post by CaptGizmo

hmm...yeah but wont it also make us its 'creators'?
(I am not comparing amino acids to god because this is a complex system forming on an other complex system).
Also if one is created(either automatically or by man) i think it will be more like our child.

reply to post by CaptGizmo

We humans have the ability to give or take away life these day's...

That being said what right will we have over such an entity if one was created?
I think it should be respected as lifeform.

reply to post by raptorinvictus

Essentially you are correct. Perhaps we would be it's God(the creator).
Then it makes one wonder if we were created as well just in a biological form...yet all our nervous system is based on electrical impulses and blood flowing through veins much like the information traveling through the internet.

It really is a fascinating concept to think about.
Even with all of the terrible things happening in the world today we still live in amazing times.

reply to post by CaptGizmo


That we do!
Come to think about it if a lifeform were created it would be quite beautiful.
If this does happen it would prove that we as a species, however unintentionally are able to create something. Not just destroy.

Can a LAN turn into a lifeform? Can a library turn into a lifeform? I haven't seen it, but through sufficient evolution perhaps we'll one day see huge walking dinosaur-like libraries roaming the ghettos of America educating all the intellectually numb youth.

IDK about beautiful think about all that porn like "would you like to see a donkey show?" porn. I do agree that I think we should respect it as a living being like data from star trek.

reply to post by ghaleon12

Comparing a library to something that has the potential to think for its self isnt quite on par but I do like the idea of them eventually teaching our youth and the ones it cant teach it can eat for sustenance sounds good to me

reply to post by ghaleon12


I dont think the liberary analogy is correct. The whole point is that complex systems have a way of going on an unpredictable path and the internet is about as complex as systems get.
What we need to find out is what 'makes' life and how does that apply to a complex system?
The point is right now the internet only stores information but does it have the potential to understand it?
The difference between knowledge and wisdom!

Originally posted by raptorinvictus
reply to post by ghaleon12

 

I dont think the liberary analogy is correct. The whole point is that complex systems have a way of going on an unpredictable path and the internet is about as complex as systems get.
What we need to find out is what 'makes' life and how does that apply to a complex system?
The point is right now the internet only stores information but does it have the potential to understand it?
The difference between knowledge and wisdom!

The internet isn't complex, its just a really really large scale LAN. Even the most basic cell is more complex than the internet and everything else. Even if the scope of the internet is increasing, I don't see how that could translate into a living thinking being. It really doesn't work like that. Its like saying, "Well this small pile of rocks isn't that special, but if we through more of the same on it, it'll turn into something it isn't! We need to make this small pile of rocks huge, and then it'll come to life!"

It like thinking that telephone lines could eventually understand human language since we talk through them all the time, doesn't make sense.

"Viruses fulfill replication, mutation and selection — but people don’t consider them to be alive, because they think life has to be made of chemicals. We can definitely make things in a computer that fulfill the criteria for life that NASA uses, except it’s not chemical."

I hate to tell the Harvard guy this, but biological viruses aren't living.


[edit on 12-6-2009 by ghaleon12]

Here is a picture of the world wide web...
tell me that does not look like a complex organism ready to come to life.

www.vlib.us...

reply to post by CaptGizmo


Well lightning branches out too but that doesn't make it living, a robot can have a human looking face, doesn't make it human ect. The part represents the whole. Reduce the internet to a wire connecting me to a couple of friends lets say, and you have nothing that is living. Multiply that by a billion and you still have nothing. A trillion and still nothing.

[edit on 12-6-2009 by ghaleon12]