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From: whipp@roborough.gpsemi.com (David Whipp.)
Subject: Re: Global Brain
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Organization: GEC Plessey Semiconductors
References: <plugge.160.2E814A6A@cs.rulimburg.nl> <CwK0o7.77C@acsu.buffalo.edu>
Date: Tue, 27 Sep 1994 07:16:07 GMT
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In article <CwK0o7.77C@acsu.buffalo.edu>, adavis@cs.buffalo.edu (Alexander Davis) writes:
|> In article <plugge.160.2E814A6A@cs.rulimburg.nl>,
|> Leo Plugge <plugge@cs.rulimburg.nl> wrote:
|> >OK, how about this one for a Minsky-like 'alife': the Internet.
|> 
|> Be ambitious: a mechanical pencil.

 [... humerous justification, paradying original post ...]

Which unfortunately misses the point, IMHO.

My reading of the original post was that the internet is a communicating
collection of processing elements - which is also the (broad) definition
of a neural network. Given this fact, it seems reasonable to suppose
that it has emmergent properties that, if viewed from the appropriate
viewpoint, would be at least as interesting as GOL. However, the claim
that its alive might be a bit premature.

-- 
                    David P. Whipp.            <whipp@roborough.gpsemi.com>
Not speaking for:   -------------------------------------------------------
 G.E.C. Plessey     Due to transcription and transmission errors, the views
 Semiconductors     expressed here may not reflect even  my  own  opinions!
