Global Brain - The Internet could become conscious by mid-2030s

March 15 2008 / by futuretalk

By Dick Pelletier

The World Wide Web is a network of inter-connectivity that goes everywhere and follows its own
intelligence. The advent of this newly emerging communication field around our planet has enabled citizens
from all lifestyles to communicate globally via words, sounds and pictures inexpensively, person-to-person;
and from the safety of their own homes and offices for the first time ever.The Internet represents a major step
in our evolution, and is a forerunner of things to come. Artificial intelligence researcher Francis Heylighen sees
huge growth as this new world-wide communication system continues to gain power from billions of humans
adding to its intelligence every day. It will get smarter, Heylighen says, as it morphs into a global superorganism that could one day provide solutions to most of humanitys problems.
Experts compare the Internet to a planet growing a global brain. As users, we represent the neurons.
Texting, emails, and IM act as nerve endings, and electromagnetic waves through the sky become neural
pathways. Like germinating seeds, this global brain continues to evolve and as some forward-thinkers believe,
will not stop until it develops feelings and achieves consciousness. Feelings represent a lower level of
awareness of what goes on in a systems environment. In that sense, the global brain will be conscious of
important events affecting its goals. A higher level of consciousness self-awareness would require that the
global brain could reflect on its own functioning. The Internet, in the wider sense of the world community is
slowly becoming aware of itself. Although todays algorithms make the web more intelligent, it cannot monitor
itself. However, in principle, there are no obstacles towards implementing such a capacity in the future.
Search engines can adapt web pages to user needs. These hyperlinks bear a remarkable resemblance to
the human brain. Synapses that connect neurons become stronger with repeated use, and disappear when usage
declines. Similarly, global brains algorithms will reinforce popular links, while rarely used links will diminish
and die.Could tomorrows global brain allow uploading the human mind? At present, information exchanged
between humans and computers only occur with mouse, keyboard or voice. However, many futurists believe
that one day technology will enable us to separate our minds from the physical brain and store its information in
a computer.
This is not as crazy as one might think. IBM hopes to reverse engineer the human brain by 2030, and
Howard Hughes Medical Institute is rounding up 300 of the worlds top neuroscientists to capture human
thought at moment of creation, which conceivably could enable thoughts, memories, and feelings to be
transferred into a machine.In the future, many believe we will treat the human mind like any other bit of
information by copying and storing it in various media. Scientists are aware that our mind roams over trillions
of neuron connections and today, we do not possess abilities to understand this incredibly complex system.
But by mid-2030s, when artificial intelligence is expected to surpass human intelligence levels, and
quantum computing systems become reality, positive futurists believe that our global brain will become fully
conscious and self-aware as it guides humanity into what promises to become a most magical future.Today,
when we access a website, or read a newsletter or an article, our thoughts focus on what we are looking at. In a
sense, our mind is on the web.
As the web gains stronger interactive abilities, such as cameras that track your eyes as you are reading, it
could interrupt you at key places in the article and let you know of other similar information that may interest
you, and it could automatically display that information for you.This type of advanced web behavior will attract
more of your attention and consume more of your interest until eventually; you may feel that you are becoming
part of the web. Your mind becomes an integral part of the web.Your body may be sitting in front of a monitor
or holding a cell phone, but your mind is on the web.