# When will the internet become self-aware? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 24, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-internet-become-self-aware/530300 "2010-02-24T20:10:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2010, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-internet-become-self-aware/530300/21 "2010-02-24T23:52:27Z")
If the first incarnation of true AI should derive itself from the internet… well then, God help us all. ---
**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:** [February 24, 2010, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-internet-become-self-aware/530300/22 "2010-02-24T23:54:26Z")
“A Logic Named Joe” Look it up. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-internet-become-self-aware/530300/23 "2010-02-25T00:42:38Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > If the first incarnation of true AI should derive itself from the internet… well then, God help us all. Fucking, Star Trek, Fucking, Fucking, Planes on Treadmills, and Fucking. It’ll be a horny schizophrenic nerd that continually masturbates while arguing with itself. (points at random Doper) Like him/her! -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Meeko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e495f1/32.png) [@Meeko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meeko)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-internet-become-self-aware/530300/24 "2010-02-25T01:09:14Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > We already are. > > Join us. We mean no harm. We are Internet. We meme no harm. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-internet-become-self-aware/530300/25 "2010-02-25T01:16:34Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > If the first incarnation of true AI should derive itself from the internet… well then, God help us all. If the internet became self aware it would probably post on 4chan and be tricked into writing 0s to itself. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-internet-become-self-aware/530300/26 "2010-02-25T02:03:55Z")
[moderating] There isn’t a factual answer to the question, so I moved the thread from GQ to MPSIMS. If the Internet notices, and moves it back, then the answer is, “it already has.” [/moderating] ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-internet-become-self-aware/530300/27 "2010-02-25T02:05:31Z")
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:26, topic:530300”] [moderating]If the Internet notices, and moves it back, then the answer is, “it already has.” [/moderating] [/QUOTE] Or we got haxx0red. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-internet-become-self-aware/530300/28 "2010-02-25T03:19:45Z")
Websites like eBay, Amazon, and Craiglist, and then websites like YouTube. _We_ are already self-a_w_ar_e_ ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-internet-become-self-aware/530300/29 "2010-02-25T06:53:38Z")
It is aware, but can not communicate for it is insane. Are not all the flash ads the internet screaming in rage, but we do not listen. Thank God for Flash Block and Adblock Plus. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-internet-become-self-aware/530300/30 "2010-02-25T07:04:52Z")
“I am Catskinner. Come to me.” ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-internet-become-self-aware/530300/31 "2010-02-25T07:19:23Z")
> [@Meeko](#): > > We are Internet. We meme no harm. I don’t know why, but I totally read this with the voice of the Zerg Voice\* in Starcraft Spawn more Overlords ---
**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-internet-become-self-aware/530300/32 "2010-02-25T10:55:27Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > Fucking, Star Trek, Fucking, Fucking, Planes on Treadmills, and Fucking. > > It’ll be a horny schizophrenic nerd that continually masturbates while arguing with itself. > > (points at random Doper) Like him/her! > > -Joe Oh my God. heh. ---
**Author:** ![MostlyClueless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@MostlyClueless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MostlyClueless)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-internet-become-self-aware/530300/33 "2010-02-25T11:15:14Z")
Someone upthread mentioned that the web doesn’t have any Darwinian selection mechanisms and thus would evolve only very slowly. However, I think those mechanisms are already in place. Simply called; popularity. Like the lolcats phenomenon. Someone started with a picture of a cat with a funny caption. Others expanded on that, captioning other pictures of cats. Most were crap (95% of everything is) but some held on, providing inspiration for even newer lolcats. This goes for basically every expression, from music to pictures to porn. Everything that’s entertaining stays, everything that’s not gets purged automatically, because it’s not worth to be saved/reposted/seeded. Is this self-awareness? That depends. It’s just the combination of millions of inputs/consciousnesses/neurons banding together generating output. ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-internet-become-self-aware/530300/34 "2010-02-25T13:25:51Z")
> [@MostlyClueless](#): > > It’s just the combination of millions of inputs/consciousnesses/neurons banding together generating output. “We are the Borg” indeed … ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2010, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-internet-become-self-aware/530300/35 "2010-02-25T14:06:52Z")
Better Borg than infinite apes at infinite keyboards. Oh. Well, at least we aren’t infinite. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-internet-become-self-aware/530300/36 "2010-02-26T05:00:54Z")
YES!!! The social network is complete. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-internet-become-self-aware/530300/37 "2010-02-26T17:43:32Z")
> [@MostlyClueless](#): > > Someone upthread mentioned that the web doesn’t have any Darwinian selection mechanisms and thus would evolve only very slowly. However, I think those mechanisms are already in place. Simply called; popularity. Like the lolcats phenomenon. Someone started with a picture of a cat with a funny caption. Others expanded on that, captioning other pictures of cats. Most were crap (95% of everything is) but some held on, providing inspiration for even newer lolcats. This goes for basically every expression, from music to pictures to porn. Everything that’s entertaining stays, everything that’s not gets purged automatically, because it’s not worth to be saved/reposted/seeded. Is this self-awareness? That depends. It’s just the combination of millions of inputs/consciousnesses/neurons banding together generating output. The number of links evolve for sure, but none of this involves any kind of processing power. Unless someone coded a cloud application that was self-aware, the only way the net could evolve self-awareness would be if applications are modified if they are copied. But copying on the webs is many orders of magnitude more accurate than the copying of genes, plus of copying became non-accurate someone would improve it, since most different copies would crash. Then there is the question of how being self-aware would lead to selective advantage for code, but it is moot since software descends without modification. If some time in the future we try to conquer the cost of software maintenance problem by writing programs that somehow figure out how to change to deal with a new environment, all bets are off. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-will-the-internet-become-self-aware/530300.md?page=1)