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Is the internet an extension of human conciousness?

Discussion in 'Serious' started by Guest-16, 31 Oct 2004.

  1. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    As in - an extension of the collective mind of humanity. Parallels can be drawn between the neural network of the brain and that of the electronic virtual internet and it's already been shown that the two can interface on the most basic level (currently). The internet continues to exist on many levels because of the constant input of humanity, like humans existing as a whole but part of a greater whole (i nicked that from Holon). What will happen to human conciousness and collective human conciousness (if there is such a thing) when interfacing with the internet becomes an everyday thing?
     
  2. Liquid K9

    Liquid K9 Human programmer.. heh

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    quick answer: yes

    long answer: read the first answer a couple thousand times
     
  3. :: kna ::

    :: kna :: POCOYO! Moderator

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    Oh My God... I've got some ****ing Jaffa Cakes in my coat pocket!
     
  4. Smiere

    Smiere What's a Dremel?

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    No, whether there is interaction or not, it's separate from our consciousness, not an extension, since the internet doesn't have a consciousness of it's own.
     
  5. Chrizzle

    Chrizzle What's a Dremel?

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    Please post this in the "Broad Sweeping Philosophy" thread.

    j/k, I don't think it is.
     
  6. Chrizzle

    Chrizzle What's a Dremel?

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    Please post this in the "Broad Sweeping Philosophy" forum.

    j/k, I don't think it is.

    PS: I definitely did something wrong.
     
  7. scotty6435

    scotty6435 What's a Dremel?

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    OMG, classic!

    If you don't know what he means, you need to shoot yourself....

    "What did I do last night?"
    "We got very drunk on free wine, ate our body weight in twiglets, and you punched an artist in the face."
    "Sh*t."
    "What."
    "I shouldn't eat twiglets, they make me violent."
     
  8. cpemma

    cpemma Ecky thump

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    We'll develop incredibly dirty minds. :naughty:

    We've already caught the spam infection, witness the gross overuse of mobile phones for pointless communications - "I'm coming into the building...now" :wallbash:
     
  9. Chrizzle

    Chrizzle What's a Dremel?

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    Hahahahahahahahaha.

    I laughed so hard about this.

    OT: One of my best friends flushed her phone down the toilet.
     
  10. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    It's about "extelligence". "Intelligence" is what we say makes us different (smarter) than animals. But animals have some intelligence too. What makes us smarter, is that we have developed a way of not having to keep all our knowledge inside the brain. Instead we can store our knowledge outside of the brain and access that knowledge, on demand, simply by listening to a story, picking up a scroll, stone tablet, book, or, now, accessing the net.

    It is that library of stored knowledge, whether books, film, CDs, internet, whatever, that is our "extelligence". Only humans have it, and that is what makes us so much smarter than animals (for what it is worth).

    So the Internet is not so much an extension of our consciousness, but, like other extelligence, an extension of our intelligence.

    There. Simple, no?
     
  11. cpemma

    cpemma Ecky thump

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    I take your point, human knowledge is an accumulation, developing ideas as we go along. But is the internet a good source? With everybody shouting for attention, how does a developer pick out seeds from sh**?

    But I'm not sure our intelligence has improved in the last few millennia, it's purely our knowledge base IMO. Strip away our reliance on technology and any ancient would probably make as good a (or better) job of surviving on his wits.
     
  12. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    Oh hell yea, but are lives are now so intertwined in technology that we couldnt live any other way. Its just how its turned out and we co-exist in such a way as to (maximum?) benefit (or at least moving towards) from it.
     
  13. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    Doesn't matter (for this particular debate). I'm referring to "Knowledge" (or "information") in its purest sense. But yeah, like the human mind, the internet is useless crap interspersed with occasional diamonds of real knowledge...

    It's all about what you're used to. Put an ancient in our modern world and he'd sink without a trace. Similarly, we wouldn't stand a chance in his. But our intelligence probably hasn't improved appreciably because a few millennia is, from an evolutionary viewpoint, not much time to change in. Research has shown that each generation performs better on cognitive tests of ability than the previous one, but that may just be due to improved (or at least more widespread) education.
     

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