The Internet as a Brain

The brain is one of the most complex networks in the world, with more neurons than there are stars in the galaxy. Its hardware is a complex network of neurons; its software a complex network of memories. And so too is the Internet a network. Its hardware is a complex network of computers; its software a complex network of websites. There is a lot we can learn from the brain and it can tell us where the Internet is headed next.

[...]

In practice, the Internet is clunkier, slower, and smaller than the average brain but the fundamental structure is roughly the same. When I look at Google and the other search engines, I see more similarity to how memories are stored and retrieved in the mind than I do to the underlying computer architecture. When I look at websites, I think memes and memories, not hypertext. When I look at Classmates.com, MySpace, and Facebook, I see social networks that are developing the way neural networks develop, a way that is different than Metcalfe’s Law of networks.

When I look at Internet computing clouds, I see the beginnings of a parallel processing machine that has the ability to go beyond brute calculations, toward the loopy random prediction power of the brain. But as I look out further into the future– as the electronic neurons multiply–I see in cyberspace a replication of biological growth itself, like the evolutionary growth of the brain of an insect, or an animal or even a human being.

The question for me is: How do you detect the intelligence? If we are only interacting with neurons, how to we see the big picture?