Will the future of online society and the analytical nature of the vast data lead to the discovery of a pattern that resembles sentience?
Could this “net” consciousness simply be part of a larger consciousness that always existed within us all? Sound familiar? :dubious:
I am looking for fictional, or theoritical, works that explore this idea.
Has anyone read or watched anything similar to this?
I am aware of a few “obvious” works, but obvious is such a subjective word…
See the works of Spider Robinson, particularly those focusing on Mary’s Place, which replaced Callahan’s…
Sethodman, welcome to the SDMB. If you are looking for a discussion of whether cyberspace will evolve sentience, this might be the right Forum (although I suspect that it would fit better in the In My Humble Opinion Forum, but if you are looking for works of literature (not to exclude drama, movies, etc.) that have already explored the idea, you will get a better response in Cafe Society where I can send this thread if that is what you sought.
[ /Modding ]
Moving Mars by Greg Bear touches on the whole Earth-becoming-a-group-mind bit, as does Earth by David Brin.
As for me, I do not believe that there is a self aware group mind, yet. I would not be at all surprised if one does appear, however. If one appears naturally, however, I doubt that it will have any more connection to us than we do with our own brain cells; we might very well not even realize it exists.
Thanks guys. Sure, I would appreciate the repost into Cafe Society. Thanks, tomndebb. Thanks for the references so far!
There is a fair amount of scholarly research on this, from Jungian psychology to Ray Kurzweil. Many forms of alternative medicine draw theory from the concept of a higher dimensional group mind, or what Jung calls “collective unconscious.” However, I am hoping to focus the discussion mostly on fictional works; however, any scholarly works that approach the subject as specific as “a consciousness that could be discovered, manifest itself, through the Internet” would be of *great *interest as well.
Well, before this gets moved to Cafe Society, I’ll link you this thread in which my personal God-concept is related to a similar idea. You may also be interested in work on The Global Brain. A similar concept was hinted at in Arthur C Clarke’s Childhood’s End (The OverMind.)
Wow, great find with The Global Brain Group! Right on target. Thanks.
Mars in the excellent webcomic A Miracle of Science is a benevolent group mind, speaking through it’s human and artificial components on a regular basis.
Design for Great-Day by Alan Dean Foster with Eric Frank Russel features “Terrans” who are actually all part of a powerful multi-species group-mind.
Olaf Stapledon wrote about the evolution of humans and others into group minds of various kinds of various sorts in his Last and First Men and Star Maker. He makes the distinction between group minds that are simply a sort of average mind writ large, and transcendant group minds that are to the individual what the brain is to individual brain cells.
The Stardancer books by Spider Robinson are about the evolution of humanity into a spacedwelling group mind.
The Cosmic Rape is about an attempt for a hostile alien group mind to absorb us into it. Interestingly, we are the only species to develop sentiance as individuals. The alien agents goal is to spark the creation of a human group mind, then the alien group mind will absorb it, overwhelming our minds due to it’s far greater numbers. In the end : ( spoilers ) :
The aliens make a crucial mistake. They succeed in sparking a human group mind, but that proves a disaster. As it happens, individually superior human minds form a group mind that is transcendently superior to the alien mind, much as we as individuals as superior to animals. The humanity-mind simply takes over the aline group mind, almost instantly.
Oakminster,
Any chance for a little more direction on Spider Robinson’s work? Looks like he churns out a book every year. Do any of them specifically deal with a global brain or consciousness manifesting itself through the Internet?
Also, a new twist on this search… Films/books that deal with a single person discovering something of incredible significance, only to forever break the link, or destroy it, due to a human psycho-social-emotional fault.
I may have misunderstood your OP. At least one of the books, possibly The Callahan Touch deals with a computer becoming sentient. There’s also reference to the group becoming telepathic for a brief period. Afraid I can’t be more specific than that, been a long time since I read the books. I haven’t read the Stardancer books–but as described above they may be closer to what you’re wanting to find.
Ghost in the Shell, either the anime tv series’ two seasons (“Stand Alone Complex”, and “S.A.C. 2nd Gig”, both are aired frequently on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim programming block), or the original manga (available in paperback) all feature major ongoing storylines about this exact subject.
Note that the movies are not (at least, not the first one; it’s about the nature of humanity vs. AI’s, robots, and cyborgs).
H3Knuckles,
Thanks, that’s actually one of the few I had heard of. 
Saw the movies, mangas and series are in the mail…
See this GD thread.
Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter’s two collaborative novels Time’s Eve and Sunstorm (which are pretty crappy IMO) posit entities that are emergent intelligences from the internet.
Arthur C Clarke. Dial F For Frankenstein
Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age touches on this, gestalt societies and such. The book is entertaining but at times determinedly surreal.