Newsgroups: comp.ai.alife
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From: etlrwy@etlxd30.ericsson.se (Rob Wheatley XD/HDN)
Subject: Re: Global Brain
Message-ID: <1994Sep23.142329.21831@ericsson.se>
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References: <plugge.160.2E814A6A@cs.rulimburg.nl>
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 1994 14:23:29 GMT
Lines: 51

 
In article 2E814A6A@cs.rulimburg.nl, plugge@cs.rulimburg.nl (Leo Plugge) writes:
>OK, how about this one for a Minsky-like 'alife': the Internet.
>
>* it's artificial (man made),
>* many of it's consituent parts are without doubt alive in the
>  conventional sense of the word,
>* it's rapidly growing,
>* it is rejuvenating itself (servers are replaced etc.),
>* it produces ideas,
>* ideas are transformed into products,
>* tasks are distributed over dedicated networks
>  (consituent parts on a higher level),
>* it is organized, but it is impossible to say who is in control
>  (sorry Searle, no homunculus),
>* it seems to have a some sort of self awereness
>  (when some part of the network goes down, it is 'known', i.e.,
>  repaired, circumvented, whatever),
>
>One can think of many more characteristics that were mentioned on
>this list as 'essentials' in alife.
>
>-Leo-
>


 1) The internet does not produce ideas, the users do.

 2) The last time I looked my news reader showed no sign of self awereness.

 3) When was the last time you saw the internet transform an idea into
    a product? In fact I left my reader on a post about how to make an
    amplifier, but a week later it still hadn`t made one.

 4) When was the last time anybody saw the internet replace a server by it's
    self? What did it do, pop down the local hardware shop and buy one?

  I'm sorry, but when is this nonsense of what's alive and what's not going
 to stop?

  OK, so it's hard to put into words and anyone can think of an example to
blow someone else's theory out of the water. So what! Can it stop now 
please. I'm sure there's a lot of people that have just had enough.


  Rob. 





