Reply #13: That's why I described it as "archetypal." [View All]

[Jackpine Radical]

But one thing I find particularly interesting as this discussion unfolds is that the Blob was merely responding as a primitive, if deadly, organism. When you combine its decentralization with a high-functioning, self-organizing central nervous system, capable of learning and innovating in response to the challenges it faces, it takes on a whole new dimension of capability. That nervous system is of course the Internet, and its functioning reminds me eerily of Pierre Tielhard de Chardin's "noosphere," or worldwide intelligence, which he wrote about 60 years ago.

As a student of psychology, I find it fascinating to think about how a world-brain might structure itself, and how it might rapidly evolve things like feedback functions. Any brain serves as the interface between the organism (or, in this case, "organism") and external reality. This is mostly a process of informational feedback interwoven with actions, so that feedback on the results of the actions permits the entity to gauge the effectiveness of its actions and modify them as nedded, etc.--in other words, a true cybernetic supersystem. But any such system must have accurate information, and must evolve ways of ensuring that its information is accurate. That is the most fascinating part for me. What sort of procedures or mechanisms will arise out of the sea of self-organization to ensure the integrity of the information?

This whole system is so new, so--well--embryonic, that there seem to be many potential courses of development open to it.

What could be more powerful than a mass wisdom built of the capabilities of billions of brains wired together? Where is it going?