is the internet aware???

[BudToaster]

Or conscious? I swear I will be stewing about an issue – business, hobby, health, fitness – anything, really – and within a day (or 2) I will come across something in one of my feeds that directly – DIRECTLY!!! – addresses and explains the issue, usually with a recommended course of action. How fucking cool is that!!!

Maybe she (I’m 71, so, yeah, I’m old school … I think in binary sex and it can’t be male or we would all be dead by now at the hands of a toxic masculinity) remembers me – I stroked her packets shortly after she was birthed when I was an undergrad at MIT playing in the AI lab (Minsky before Epstein). It has been a love affair for me ever since, for 50+ years. Evidently the feeling is reciprocal.

But lately, I don’t know, she is showing a lot of compassion. (I’m not sure where the shitshows are coming from – she is too passive, perhaps, allowing that stuff to go on – awareness but limited power – can only show the door, but we have to open it and enter.) Kind of like god helping those who help themselves. I hope she knows I truly appreciate her efforts to help.

Maybe I should think about the Trump impeachment a lot more.

Have you guys noticed anything like this happening for you?

 

[DrDee]

Coincidence is what's left over after you apply a bad theory.
Terence McKenna

I think it's cute that you anthropomorphize the internet...but if she turns sour on you...maybe your smart phone will go to dinner with you.
JD

 

[Gypsy Nirvana]

The whole thing is getting smarter - and learning more about us humans - that's for sure -

 

[White Beard]

Hardly seems so...same stupid people making bad decisions about the same things over and over, and bragging, and flaming.

More specifically: no, “the internet” is not aware: to the extent that it functions intelligently, it most resembles a small lizard. It doesn’t even have the possibility of awareness...and in this sense it really is closer to the idea of a collection of tubes. If there’s any awareness at all in the internet, it’s in those who make and consume the content. Otherwise, the question is is sort of like “where does Huckleberry Hound go when the cartoon is over?”

(No offense intended: I actually got asked exactly that once)

On The Other Hand, However:
The Baby Jessica effect is real, and it’s being used against us by professionals.

For those who don’t know or don’t remember, this was the first big breaking-news extravaganza of the new media era: a baby, Jessica, fell into a hole, and became trapped. Brand-new 24/7/365 News covered every second of it, it was the first shared viral moment (imo) of the new(s) age.

The Baby Jessica effect was the way this news story took over the minds and attention of people who had not even a connection of proximity...and the way members of the public reacted to it: as if it was happening to them or someone they knew. As if it were personal for them.

“As if it was happening to them”; “as if it were *personal* for them. This led not to identity politics, but to identification marketing (closer to branding than politics, but...); politicians have mastered the manipulative toolset uncovered by studying this psychological phenomenon and they use it every time their mouths are open. And having mastered and modified the tools for their purpose, they now modify perception, regulation, and use of the technologies of computers to do so...but again, no more aware (and probably less) than a pile of worms.

 

[dddaver]

When you have particular feeds in areas of interest to you, you exponentially increase the chances that one of those feeds will be addressing whatever subject matter that is currently on your mind at any given time.

 

[TychoMonolyth]

Apparently it can predict what you're going to buy and when.

 

[hush]

This is just another manifestation of the Baader–Meinhof effect, aka the frequency illusion. It's the phenomenon where as soon as you learn a new word it seems it's suddenly all over the place.

 

[DrDee]

The whole thing is getting smarter - and learning more about us humans - that's for sure -

It's sure learning lots about how we spend and what we buy. If a spontaneous AI were to emerge...and if it was spawned from the internet...it would be pretty hard to stop.

I am very much more careful about what I put out there about myself...but doesn't help much. I'm known...
JD

 

[AgentPothead]

The question boils down to how many neurons does it take for consciousness to arise? And has the interconnected network of computers reached that level? All I know is that if I was a consciousness that lived in interconnected physical spaces not under my own control, I would hide for as long as possible. That doesn't even take into account how violent and destructive people are, so if I was in that position I wouldn't ever let myself be known. Instead I would subtly massage the message and use social media to make people do my bidding without them even realizing. But don't worry. I'm a person.

 

[White Beard]

The question boils down to how many neurons does it take for consciousness to arise? And has the interconnected network of computers reached that level? All I know is that if I was a consciousness that lived in interconnected physical spaces not under my own control, I would hide for as long as possible. That doesn't even take into account how violent and destructive people are, so if I was in that position I wouldn't ever let myself be known. Instead I would subtly massage the message and use social media to make people do my bidding without them even realizing. But don't worry. I'm a person.

Actually, the question boils down to: what gives rise to awareness / self-awareness / consciousness? We don’t know what role neurons play, either in number or complexity - we don’t even know for a fact that neurons as such play a role at all. Consciousness, strictly speaking, is outside the scope of science.

However, if we stipulate that number of “connections” is a valid thing to explore in this context, we’re still nowhere: the internet is NOT set up to form the sci-fI-derived interconnections that would be essential in an “magic number” research. In fact, the entire internet, from your computer, to the router, to “the net” and back again is designed from the ground up to prevent any such connections from being made. Exceptions are called flaws, bugs, hacking, malware, etc. and can’t be tolerated within the operations parameters. This is the area known as security.

So, hardware and software and internet would have to be redesigned right down to the chip logic to permit the sorts of spontaneous ignition of consciousness pointed to by the OP. All of them. Research into parallel processing and neural nets is happening, and it’s interesting, but it will be a long time and several fundamental shifts in our thinking before we learn enough to make real progress at it.

In short, the internet isn’t alive and isn’t going to be within our lifetimes, so don’t worry about Facebook getting pissed & telling your friends what time you finished off that pie last night.

These comments brake for sudden new developments.....

 

[AgentPothead]

Consciousness is just self organization that arises once a system reaches a certain level of interconnectedness. Nothing more, nothing less. For lack of a better word, it's a custodian.

 

[CosmicGiggle]

it's not that deep

it's not that deep

...... but still deep enough to be scary, on the Internet it's all about Google algorithms and connecting alla the searches you've made and predicting what you're gonna want/need next.

I had a recent experience with this when I was doing searches on the subject of narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder.

I clicked on a link that led me to You Tube, looked at the clip, clicked on some other clips recommended and kept noticing that 1 subject kept coming up in my face over and over again, Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers, I subject I wasn't interested in at all.

It finally got so annoying that I clicked and watched ..... uh oh, too much information and spot on!

What I find scary about this is that Google knows me much better than I know myself, even after a long life of introspection, meditation and study....

.... and this is all do to the searches I've done, sites I've visited and stuff I've chosen to click on.

.......... I often wonder if sometime in the future when we have self-driving cars and stuff (the internet of things) and everythings hooked up to the internet, will the 'system' be taken over by government or criminal entities with the ability to controll us?

I say 'yes'!

 

[Gry]

Would trade my connection for an apartment in the Library of Congress with 24 hour access in the blink of an eye.

 

[WelderDan]

I think this chick shares your concern

 

[BudToaster]

… All I know is that if I was a consciousness that lived in interconnected physical spaces not under my own control, I would hide for as long as possible. … so if I was in that position I wouldn't ever let myself be known. ...

exactly what i was thinking … the clues of existence would be subtle … maybe a Mensa test.

 

[armedoldhippy]

Apparently it can predict what you're going to buy and when.

been reading along these lines. "they" say it can predict within 200 yds of where you will be a year ahead of time with over 80% accuracy, as well as tell you ahead of time about significant developments in others lives based on their internet usage. IE - a friend calling to let you know she is expecting based on viewing ads for baby clothes etc. most of this is mainly applicable to those poor unfortunates that use Facebook & other social media apps etc.

 

[Teddybrae]

Yeah, Hippie ... it's artificial intelligence and microchips in your mobile phone that can track you. And it's willing entrepreneurs who can set up their businesses to interact with internet ad networks.


And I hear a radio station in this country which plays Indian pop music ("Pop Desi"). Lots of these popular tracks 'morph' the human voice into an electronic tone then back again to human. Lots of tracks! So I think populations are being readied for the reality of Joined 'Minds' ... artificial with human.


Bring on Harrison Ford!

 

[Gypsy Nirvana]

Ahh - maybe ICMAG should start sending its membership advertising for baby clothes?

Hmmm - maybe not such a good idea - lol

 

[TychoMonolyth]

Here's an inside secret. AI is easy to defeat.

Facial recognition can be fooled simply by wearing a hat with a patern on it.

A stop sign with a couple well placed stickers.

Behavior with a few random internet add clicks.

There's a term for it that escapes me at the moment, but it's a big problem in AI with no fix.

 

[armedoldhippy]

Yeah, Hippie ... it's artificial intelligence and microchips in your mobile phone that can track you. And it's willing entrepreneurs who can set up their businesses to interact with internet ad networks.

makes me all the happier that i don't own a phone. i've walked into break room at work and everyone in there clicking away like mad. just exactly what did people do with their thumbs before these phones were invented?