Cogito Ergo Sum means ‘I think, therefore I exist (am)’. It answers the question of our existence of whether we exist or if we are characters in some chap’s wild imagination. Well now the question is- How do we think? What happens in our brilliant brains that makes us think?
Microprocessors,the brains of computers and smart devices; are made up of millions of components called transistors. Each one just makes one decision- to be in 0 or 1 state. Programmers, with help of complex algorithms employ many of these simple transistors simultaneously to create computing power. 
Our brain is made up of 50-100 billion neurons connected together with 1000 trillion synaptic connections as in a microprocessor. If you take a single neuron, it doesn’t exhibit intelligence as such. When billions of them are connected together, something amazing happens- Intelligence.
Now let’s consider another network- the internet. An estimated 1.8 billion users are connected to this big web. Millions are getting hooked up every month. The advent of smart phones and cheap data rates are pushing these figures off the roof. Nowadays there are about 500-700 million transistors in a single processor. If we were to consider the trillions of transistors connected together through the internet, it does come very close to the number of neurons in our brains. Sure, the number of synapses is still very small, but wouldn’t it be enough for primary intelligence?
So the big question is, whether the internet is aware of its self? Can it think for itself? If so, by Cogito Ergo Sum, does it mean that it exists?
-This can be also explained by Swarm Intelligence, like how Craig Reynolds did with Boids to explain flocking behavior of birds-
the intelligence that occurs in a human brain is mainly due to the data that is fed in, which is voluntary.
ReplyDeleteon the other hand in the internet network, the data has to be fed in, so that it can be computed and results can be given out .... So it cant think by itself. :)
i hope i sound sensible .
nice thought....bt internet can now think or even take its own decision based on the past exeprience..dis is vot we call artificial intelligence...nd the concept you used is really gud...keep it up...
ReplyDeleteThere is no question of whether computers can make decisions. Complex algorithms have long since taken over trading decisions in the US.
ReplyDeleteAwareness and intelligence are different terms. Does the internet know that it 'exists' and that it can function as a 'being'? Humans can think because it knows it exists as an entity.
If it is aware of itself, it may use the enormous amounts of data available at hand against us- which as you can imagine has catastrophe written all over it..
Lets hope for our sake it doesn't..
Hi Cinish,
ReplyDeleteNice Post! How 'bout Semantic web where pioneers of internet are working hard to make machines operate in a humanly manner? So far it was 'us' as operators and giving directions, semantics, on the other hand, is machine giving direction to machine that synchronizes with human readability and brain requirements.
Let's see how we reach that stage, if at all it is possible.
Hi Blogoscope,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment
Semantic web is an interesting concept, its inception would in fact give more autonomy to machines, accelerating the creation of inherent awareness.
Kubrick, in 2001-A space Odyssey, envisioned that technology would be our way out of evolutionary stagnation. So its advancement is a given,but unrestrained advancement may turn in to something quite undesirable.
Lets hope it doesn't come to that.