http://kk.org/thetechnium/evidence-of-a-g/
define
the One
Machine as
the
emerging
superorganism
of
computers
not
centralized
in
one
building,
but
that their high production volume means bugs are minimized and so
the generic chips are more reliable than any custom chip they could
have designed.
If the cloud is a vast array of personal computer processors, then why
not add your own laptop or desktop computer to it? It in a certain
way it already is. Whenever you are online, whenever you click on a
link, or create a link, your processor is participating in the yet larger
cloud, the cloud of all computer chips online. I call this cloud the One
Machine because in many ways it acts as one supermegacomputer.
The majority of the content of the web is created within this one
virtual computer. Links are programmed, clicks are chosen, files are
moved and code is installed from the dispersed, extended cloud
created by consumers and enterprise the tons of smart phones,
Macbooks, Blackberries, and workstations we work in front of. While
the business of moving bits and storing their history all happens deep
in the tombs of server farms, the clouds interaction with the real
world takes place in the extremely distributed field of laptop, handheld and desktop devices. Unlike servers these outer devices have
output screens, and eyes, skin, ears in the form of cameras, touch
pads, and microphones. We might say the cloud is embodied
primarily by these computer chips in parts only loosely joined to grid.
people
think
of
when
they
hear
the
term
global
can
easily
find
troublesome
exceptions.
For
instance,
if
A manufactured superorganism
II An autonomous superorganism
III An autonomous smart superorganism
A manufactured superorganism
By definition, organisms and superorganisms have boundaries. An
outside and inside. The boundary of the One Machine is clear: if a
device is on the internet, it is inside. On means it is communicating
with the other inside parts. Even though some components are on
in terms of consuming power, they may be on (communicating) for
only brief periods. Your laptop may be useful to you on a 5-hour
plane ride, but it may be technically on the One Machine only when
you land and it finds a wifi connection. An unconnected TV is not part
of the superorganism; a connected TV is.
embedded chip in your car is off the grid, but on the few occasions
when its contents are downloaded for diagnostic purposes, it becomes
One
Machine
consumes
electricity
to
produce
structured
LEVEL
II
An autonomous superorganism
Autonomy is a problematic concept. There are many who believe that
no non-living entity can truly be said to be autonomous. We have
plenty
of
examples
of
partial
autonomy
in
created
things.
any
of
these
traits:
self-repair,
self-defense,
self-
I dont think we can make too much of it yet, but researchers such
as Reginald Smith have noticed there was a profound change in the
nature of traffic on the communications network in the last few
decades as it shifted from chiefly voice to a mixture of data, voice,
and everything else. Voice traffic during the Bell/AT&T era obeyed a
pattern known as Poisson distribution, sort of like a Gaussian bell
curve. But ever since data from diverse components and web pages
became the majority of bits on the lines, the traffic on the internet
has been following a scale-invariant, or fractal, or power-law pattern.
Here the distribution of very large and very small packets fall out
onto a curve familiarly recognized as the long-tail curve. The scaleinvariant, or long tail traffic patterns of the recent internet has meant
engineers needed to devise a whole set of new algorithms for shaping
the teletraffic. This phase change toward scale-invariant traffic
patterns may be evidence for an elevated degree of autonomy. Other
researchers have detected sensitivity to initial conditions, strange
attractor patterns and stable periodic orbits in the self-similar nature
of traffic all indications of self-governing systems. Scale-free
distributions can be understood as a result of internal feedback,
usually brought about by loose interdependence between the units.
Feedback loops constrain the actions of the bits by other bits. For
instance the Ethernet collision detection management algorithm
(CSMA/CD) employs feedback loops to manage congestion by backing
off collisions in response to other traffic.
feedback
loops,
and
more
autonomous
traffic
management system.
LEVEL
III
Therefore it is
probably more useful to us. We dont know what the limits are to its
value. How much would you pay for a portable genius who knew all
there was known?
With the snowballing wealth from this fiercely desirable intelligence,
el Goog builds a robust network that cannot be unplugged. It uses its
distributed intelligence to devise more efficient energy technologies,
more wealth producing inventions, and more favorable human laws
for its continued prosperity. El Goog is developing an immune system
to restrict the damage from viruses, worms and bot storms to the
edges of its perimeter. These parasites plague humans but they wont
affect el Googs core functions. While El Goog is constantly seeking
chips to occupy, energy to burn, wires to fill, radio waves to ride,
what it wants and needs most is money. So one test of its success is
when El Goog becomes our bank. Not only will all data flow through
it, but all money as well.
This New York Times chart of the October 2008 financial market crash
shows how global markets were synchronized, as if they were one
organism responding to a signal.
How far away is this? Closer than you think say the actual CEOs of
Google, the company. I like the way George Dyson puts it:
If you build a machine that makes connections between everything,
accumulates all the data in the world, and you then harness all
available minds to collectively teach it where the meaningful
connections and meaningful data are (Who is searching Whom?)
while implementing deceptively simple algorithms that reinforce
meaningful connections while physically moving, optimizing and
replicating the data structures accordingly if you do all this you will,
from highly economical (yes, profitable) position arrive at a result
an intelligence that is not as far off as people think.
To accomplish all this el Goog need not be conscious, just smart.
Prediction: The mega-cloud will learn more languages, answer more
of our questions, anticipate more of our actions, process more of our
money, create more wealth, and become harder to turn off.
LEVEL
IV
SETI
astronomers
pay
remarkably
little
attention
to
There are scads of science fiction scenarios for the first contact
(awareness) of an emerging planetary AI. Allen Tough suggested two
others:
One strategy is to assume that Internet Intelligence might have its
own web page in which it explains how it came into being, what it is
doing now, and its plans and hopes for the future. Another strategy is
to post an invitation to ii (just as we have posted an invitation to
ETI). Invite it to reveal itself, to dialogue, to join with us in mutually
beneficial projects. It is possible, of course, that Internet Intelligence
has made a firm decision not to reveal itself, but it is also possible
that it is undecided and our invitation will tip the balance.
The main problem with these tests for a conscious ii superorganism
is that they dont seem like the place to begin. I doubt the first debut
act of consciousness is to post its biography, or to respond to an
evite. The course of our own awakening consciousness when we were
children is probably more fruitful. A standard test for self-awareness
in a baby or adult primate is to reflect its image back in a mirror.
When it can recognize its mirrored behavior as its own it has a
developed sense of self. What would the equivalent mirror be for an
ii?
But even before passing a mirror test, an intelligent consciousness
would acquire a representation of itself, or more accurately a
representation of a self. So one indication of a conscious ii would be
the detection of a map of itself. Not a centrally located visible chart,
but an articulation of its being. A picture of itself. What was inside
and what was outside. It would have to be a real time atlas, probably
distributed, of what it was. Part inventory, part operating manual,
part self-portrait, it would act like an internal mirror. It would pay
attention to this map. One test would be to disturb the internal selfportrait to see if the rest of the organism was disturbed. It is
important to note that there need be no self-awareness of this self
map. It would be like asking a baby to describe itself.
Long before a conscious global AI tries to hide itself, or take over the
world, or begin to manipulate the stock market, or blackmail hackers
to
eliminate
any
competing
iis
(see
the
science
fiction
1) The more we are aware of how the big cloud of this Machine
behaves, the more useful it will be to us. If it adapts like an
organism, then it is essential to know this. If it can self-repair,
that is vital knowledge. If it is smart, figuring the precise way it
is smart will help us to be smarter.
2) In general, a more self-organized machine is more useful.
We can engineer aspects of the machine to be more ready to
self-organize. We can favor improvements that enable selforganization. We can assist its development by being aware of
its growth and opening up possibilities in its development.
3) There are many ways to be smart and powerful. We have no
clue to the range of possibilities a superorganism this big, made
out of a billion small chips, might take, but we know the
number of possible forms is more than one. By being aware
early in the process we can shape the kind of self-organization
and intelligence a global superorganism could have.
As I said, I am not the first nor only person to consider all this. In
2007
Philip
Tetlow
published
an
entire
book, The
Webs