The Conscious Internet - Part VIII: Our Digital Mary Shelley

A while back a wrote a short article titled "the Conscious Internet" concerning the development of AI and computer technology in regards to the Internet. The article is written with a very philosophical approach to the subject, but handles real life facts. It has long been my intention to publish it here on the blog, but I just haven't gotten around to doing so. Until now ...

Here's part 8 of 8. You can find the previous chapter here. Happy reading, and please comment below.

The reality that the Internet today is such an intricate part of society that it would be almost impossible to revert back to a time without our digital connections, can hardly be contested. The total amount of information being sent through the ether each day is staggering and ever increasing.

Exactly which virtual straw will break the camel’s back is quite unclear, but what can be agreed upon is that it begins with massive amounts of shared data.

This occurrence is currently referred to as “Big Data”; the massive amount of unstructured, unorganized, and thereby unsearchable (“ungoogleable”) data that is today populating the Internet. Estimates place this type of data at about 90 % of all information, and it is only getting bigger. It consists mostly of social media, but also includes other data-generating interactions such as call-center conversations, TV footage, mobile phone calls, iMessaging, website clicks, etc.

The impacts of Big Data also seem impossible to predict. Game developers today create games which center on social interactions, and the ability to play and share gaming experiences with your friends online. As a result more and more games demand constant connectivity to even boot up a game, something that always results in trouble at launch day. 

When launching Diablo III in 2012, Blizzard Studios tried anticipating the amount of users logging on to play the game for the first time, keep in mind that this was probably the biggest release that year, so the statistical data provided to build servers capable of handling the onslaught was not hard to find. Still they failed. 

The servers were down for days, and “Error 33” (meaning the server is unreachable) was forever carved in Blizzard history. They history repeated itself a year later with the launch of SimCity 5, which again had players disappointedly waiting for a server connection. 

Regardless of our knowledge of the Internet, it seems as though we will never again be fully aware of what goes on within its digital boarders. In theory there could already be a primitive cognitive being in the net, a phantom invisibly surfing the wires in between servers. Our lack of knowledge combined with the speed of which the Internet is growing, would provide the perfect veil for which to hide behind.

In the race between mother board and mother brain the human intellect is currently in the driver’s seat. Our illogical complexity it seems is still guarding the key to cognition, but the grip may be slipping. However, a cognitive digital entity, in spite of SkyNet’s best foreshadowing, does not have to be a threat to society. It could rather turn out to be an invaluable asset for our human development. 

This artificial intelligence would instantly sense our mood if we had a bad day, and turn on an appropriate musical tune or TV show to cheer us up. It would provide moral support when faced with a difficult question, and laugh with us when amused. It would ease our everyday life and relieve both stress and workload. 

Research shows that the points in human history where health and safety have sky-rocked coincide perfectly with spikes in technological evolution. The introduction of the steam engine drastically reduced the work-load placed on the individual employee, resulting in a revolution in increased welfare for the overall human population. 

This innovation infinitely multiplied the power of our muscles, and helped us overcome the limitations of our own bodies. We now stand on the brink of another revolution as we are slowly overcoming the limitations of our intellect, outsourcing intelligence to the computers. 

The creation of a SkyNet is almost a certainty; we will before long have an interconnected, all-knowing entity governing the processes we live and function by, but rather than destroy us, maybe it will help us grow into the next step of human evolution.

Thank you for reading taking time to read my short article, hope you enjoyed it! What do you think our Internet future holds for us? Leave you comment below!