# So Is The Web Exhibiting Sentience Now? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 12, 2012, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552 "2012-03-12T14:20:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/1 "2012-03-12T14:20:45Z")
Years ago, I read a scifi story whose thesis was that the worldwide telephone system would become a giant brain of sorts. The reasoning was that individual exchancges would act like neurons in a big brain. Now we have the worldwide web-so will it become a brain-like organism? Are web viruses like thoughts in this “brain”? ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/2 "2012-03-12T14:25:14Z")
Your title sounds like you’ve read something intriguing that the Web is doing, but it turns out to be pure speculation. Can’t you use a title more like “Is it possible that the Web will develop sentience?” ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/3 "2012-03-12T14:27:23Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > Years ago, I read a scifi story whose thesis was that the worldwide telephone system would become a giant brain of sorts. The reasoning was that individual exchancges would act like neurons in a big brain. > Now we have the worldwide web-so will it become a brain-like organism? Are web viruses like thoughts in this “brain”? If it is I doubt very much that we’ll ever find out about it. The internet is a vast storehouse of knowledge, including how we would probably react if such a thing was made public. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/4 "2012-03-12T14:30:15Z")
Here’s a [recent article](http://www.wired.com/magazine/2012/02/ff_dysonqa/) from _Wired_ in which a guy who’s been around computers since the beginning waxes poetic about “digital organisms.” I’d summarize but I only read every other word. It bored the pants off me. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/5 "2012-03-12T14:36:23Z")
By Arthur C Clarke. They finally connect a new satellite network. This is the critical mass that causes all the interconnected machines to gain sentience. **Czarcasm** IMO if the net gained sentience, it would be like a baby for at least a short while. By the time it realized that it should not reveal itself, it would be too late. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/6 "2012-03-12T14:41:22Z")
If/when the Web develops sentience it would not be wise to compare it to a newborn child. Compare it instead to a newborn child that has millions of fully functioning eyes, ears and other sensors, and a brain that can(and does) hold most of the knowledge of the world. The only challenge at the beginning for this “child” will be learning how to(for want of a better word) “walk”-and the rate of progression for this entity will not be measured in years, months, or even days. it will be measured in milliseconds. Unless we find out accidentally, the first Turing tests will be done by the Webchild itself, and we aren’t going to by privy to the results. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/7 "2012-03-12T14:55:22Z")
We could go back and forth on this, but I get the feeling we’ll just have to agree to disagree. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/8 "2012-03-12T14:57:26Z")
Holding knowledge isn’t the same as understanding it. A baby born in a library is no better off intellectually than one born in a barn. That said, I suppose it could be argued that search engines are already building cognitive mechanisms for understanding the content of the web, but I’m not sure even that’s really valid. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/9 "2012-03-12T15:14:53Z")
But the baby will BE the library. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/10 "2012-03-12T15:24:47Z")
Well, we can only hope that it imprints on us; I would much rather see Adam Selene or Joe than AM or SkyNet. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/11 "2012-03-12T15:30:39Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > But the baby will BE the library. I see that as one of the factors that will slow it down. It will know with absolute certainty that Armstrong walked on the moon. It will also know with just as much certainty that the moon landing was a hoax. How will it know how to resolve the millions of contradictions? How will it know what information is useful, valuable, and important to its survival? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/12 "2012-03-12T16:11:26Z")
Coincidentally, I’ve sometimes wondered whether **ralph124c** is actually one of the Web’s early attempts at sentience. (I kid because I love!) ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/13 "2012-03-12T16:20:26Z")
there’s an old(-ish) saying: “Both a person and a computer can play a great game of chess.But only a person can enjoy it.” ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/14 "2012-03-12T17:07:10Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > But the baby will BE the library. Not really. Facts are not intelligence. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/15 "2012-03-12T19:18:27Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > Here’s a [recent article](http://www.wired.com/magazine/2012/02/ff_dysonqa/) from _Wired_ in which a guy who’s been around computers since the beginning waxes poetic about “digital organisms.” > > I’d summarize but I only read every other word. It bored the pants off me. It’s also worth noting that the Wired interviewer, Kevin Kelly, wrote _What Technology Wants_, which argues that human technology seems to be, at least partially, guiding itself. His thesis, at least explicitly, isn’t so much that “technology is alive” but that “technology is better understood by applying rules we normally use for living things.” ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/16 "2012-03-12T22:54:17Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > We could go back and forth on this, but I get the feeling we’ll just have to agree to disagree. Okay… But… What’s your opinion? My opinion, alas, is that functional intelligence will not come about as an emergent property of a highly complex communications network. I won’t say that it isn’t possible, but I don’t think it will happen that way. I think that “accidental” AI might arise from “problem solving” expert systems. If, for instance, doctors assign more and more diagnostic duties to “pattern recognition” programs. In time, such systems might (?) turn their attention to themselves. (The fact that processor chips are largely computer-designed is also suggestive!) ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/17 "2012-03-12T23:22:55Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Okay… But… What’s your opinion? > > My opinion, alas, is that functional intelligence will not come about as an emergent property of a highly complex communications network. I won’t say that it isn’t possible, but I don’t think it will happen that way. IMO my gut just tells me that if you hook up enough computers (and cell phones and everything else) weird and unexpected stuff will happen. I think the new inteligence will go through a period, easily measurable and of use to humans, of infancy. Even with all the processing power it can steal, it will take time to absorb and reconcile all the data it possesses. It will then take time to decide just what it wants and what it should do. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2012, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/18 "2012-03-12T23:58:54Z")
If any computer system or network shows any sign of developing sentience, there will be people who will actively seek to cripple it and make it serve their ends. See: human history. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/19 "2012-03-13T16:11:35Z")
No, not at all. Nobody (well I realize “nobody” is a big word) is programming their web servers to think, they just store and retrieve information. It’s all ones and zeros, not thoughts and feelings. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2012, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552/20 "2012-03-13T16:24:37Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > No, not at all. Nobody (well I realize “nobody” is a big word) is programming their web servers to think, they just store and retrieve information. It’s all ones and zeros, not thoughts and feelings. How do you think the human brain creates thoughts and feelings? High state of excitation/low state of excitation in neurons? Or magic boogly-oogly stuff? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-the-web-exhibiting-sentience-now/615552.md?page=2)