Submission + - Artificial intelligence and Internet self-awarenes (uic.edu)
Andreas Martin Lisewski writes: "When will the Internet wake up and become aware of itself? In a suggested Internet project (Internet Awareness Day 2008, IAD2008) this problem is approached by asking a different question: Can the Internet cope with stress? Its aim is to run a large-scale distributed software experiment, which could reject the hypothesis that the Internet is not a conscious entity.
The idea of self-awareness and consciousness developing global computer network has migrated from science fiction to the attention of scientists. Terrence Sejnowski has readdressed this thought in a recent contribution. He argues that the Internet's rapid growth, its communication design and architecture along with some of its functional measures, such as storage capacity and bandwidth, resemble neurobiological aspects or are not far from values representative of the human brain. Although still speculative, it appears that this idea could be formulated as a valid scientific hypothesis, which, however, cannot be decided by today's scientific knowledge in neuroscience, according to Sejnowski. This inability likely stems from the fact that no scientifically accepted and objective procedure exists that would allow a detection of consciousness in any given system or organism, hence from a current lack of a fabulous consciousness test.
The project's key is to add to the problem a psychological perspective, which could possibly lead to an empirically testable strategy regarding the corresponding null hypothesis, i.e., that the current Internet has no detectable form of consciousness. The main conjecture is that the null hypothesis can be rejected on the ground of two distinct stress and problem situation adaptation processes known to psychology: coping and defense. These criteria differentiate between defense and coping and include the conscious/unconscious status and the intentional/non-intentional nature of the process. Psychologist Phebe Cramer summarizes that "[...]coping mechanisms involve a conscious, purposeful effort, while defense mechanisms are processes that occur without conscious effort and without conscious awareness (i.e., they are unconscious). Also, coping strategies are carried out with the intent of managing or solving the problem situation, while defense mechanism occur without conscious intentionality; the latter function to change internal psychological state but may have no effect on external reality."
A specific aim is to develop a freely available program, a client, to advertise and to distribute it among many, possibly thousands or millions, human Internet users, and to use this program to monitor and to perform a large scale and synchronized disconnection or shutdown of a number of Internet hosts — a stressful and adverse situation for the Internet. This action requires a foregoing preparation stage followed by the shutdown event both communicated and directed by humans. In a hypothetical response, a coping Internet would act to prevent the intended shutdown by trying to interfere with external reality of the user, hence to change the course of events and to effectively reduce stress. The decisive experimental question is whether a coping Internet has the power to dissuade humans from their intended plan."
The idea of self-awareness and consciousness developing global computer network has migrated from science fiction to the attention of scientists. Terrence Sejnowski has readdressed this thought in a recent contribution. He argues that the Internet's rapid growth, its communication design and architecture along with some of its functional measures, such as storage capacity and bandwidth, resemble neurobiological aspects or are not far from values representative of the human brain. Although still speculative, it appears that this idea could be formulated as a valid scientific hypothesis, which, however, cannot be decided by today's scientific knowledge in neuroscience, according to Sejnowski. This inability likely stems from the fact that no scientifically accepted and objective procedure exists that would allow a detection of consciousness in any given system or organism, hence from a current lack of a fabulous consciousness test.
The project's key is to add to the problem a psychological perspective, which could possibly lead to an empirically testable strategy regarding the corresponding null hypothesis, i.e., that the current Internet has no detectable form of consciousness. The main conjecture is that the null hypothesis can be rejected on the ground of two distinct stress and problem situation adaptation processes known to psychology: coping and defense. These criteria differentiate between defense and coping and include the conscious/unconscious status and the intentional/non-intentional nature of the process. Psychologist Phebe Cramer summarizes that "[...]coping mechanisms involve a conscious, purposeful effort, while defense mechanisms are processes that occur without conscious effort and without conscious awareness (i.e., they are unconscious). Also, coping strategies are carried out with the intent of managing or solving the problem situation, while defense mechanism occur without conscious intentionality; the latter function to change internal psychological state but may have no effect on external reality."
A specific aim is to develop a freely available program, a client, to advertise and to distribute it among many, possibly thousands or millions, human Internet users, and to use this program to monitor and to perform a large scale and synchronized disconnection or shutdown of a number of Internet hosts — a stressful and adverse situation for the Internet. This action requires a foregoing preparation stage followed by the shutdown event both communicated and directed by humans. In a hypothetical response, a coping Internet would act to prevent the intended shutdown by trying to interfere with external reality of the user, hence to change the course of events and to effectively reduce stress. The decisive experimental question is whether a coping Internet has the power to dissuade humans from their intended plan."
