Newsgroups: comp.ai.alife
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!MathWorks.Com!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!EU.net!sun4nl!news.nic.surfnet.nl!rlmix1.rulimburg.nl!cs.rulimburg.nl!plugge
From: plugge@cs.rulimburg.nl (Leo Plugge)
Subject: Re: Global Brain
Message-ID: <plugge.178.2E881808@cs.rulimburg.nl>
Lines: 52
Sender: news@rlmix1.rulimburg.nl (USENET News System)
Organization: University of Limburg, Maastricht
X-Newsreader: Trumpet for Windows [Version 1.0 Rev Final Beta #9]
References: <plugge.160.2E814A6A@cs.rulimburg.nl> <1994Sep23.142329.21831@ericsson.se> <COETMEUR.94Sep26145143@moon.icdc.fr> <1994Sep26.192144.5249@relay.nswc.navy.mil>
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 13:03:05 GMT

In article <1994Sep26.192144.5249@relay.nswc.navy.mil> bc@dias.nswc.navy.mil (Bruce Copeland) writes:
>In article <COETMEUR.94Sep26145143@moon.icdc.fr>, coetmeur@icdc.fr (Alain
>Coetmeur) writes:

[snip snip]

>|> when you incorporate the peoples behind, it is a very complex
>|> system that has all the properties of living systems ...

[more snip snip]

>That's correct.  The net is only a part of the nervous system. As the 
>information processing speed and capability of the entire system (which 
>includes us human peons) increases, the likelihood of the system being 
>self-aware increases.  It is really only a matter of time, perhaps even 
>in our lifetime.

[even more snip snip]

First of all: sorry for the empty message.

Now.
What's this obsession with finding biological characteristics 
in Alife (like) objects? I never said anywhere in my original posting that 
Internet is alive, could ever become alive or could be considerd alive.
Furthermore, why should we judge Alife objects by criteria that cannot be 
clearly defined?

A friend of mine has a mechanical ant crawling about. No one has ever said 
that it resembles a real ant or that the thing is alive, but they all accept 
it as an example of Alife.

I've said this in another posting and I'll say it again: there's no definition 
of 'alive', just like psychologists do not have a definition for intelligence. 
Try defining 'chair'. (check out the threads on comp.ai.philosopy)

What is more interesting is to look for desireable (or better 'desired') 
characteristics in an Alife. My point in the previous posting was that 
the Internet shows many desirable/desired characteristics of an Alife brain.

Question is ofcourse: what is desirable?
And, when you think something is desirable, can you produce a definition to 
fully describe it?

For example, should an Alife have 'common sense'? Yes? OK, then let's try to 
define it. If we can come up with a definition, but we can't implement it, 
then maybe we cannot create an Alife.

-Leo-
******************************************************************
Dr. L.A. Plugge, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Limburg
plugge@cs.rulimburg.nl          http://www.cs.rulimburg.nl/~plugge
