There's a ghost in my Internet
"We cannot even predict what kinds of emergent properties would appear when animals begin interacting as part of a 'brain-net'," Nicolelis said, adding brains in series would theoretically lead to better performance and solutions that no single brain would ever be capable of.
From a utopian perspective it sounds a bit like the Chinese Valentine's story, according to which the star-crossed lovers are allowed to meet on a bridge of magpies once a year from their opposite sides of the Milky Way. From a dystopian viewpoint it is more like The Matrix, where we are inside each others' thoughts, yet controlled by machines policing the Internet from within as it is controlled by them without.
Meanwhile, across the Atlantic in Europe, scientists have hooked up robots to a part of the Web so they can update information and adapt to their environments. Effectively, machines can update themselves on the Net, or learn as they go.
The technical head of the project at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Mohanarajah Gajamohan, said the system would be particularly useful for drones, self-driving cars and other mobile robots. It would effectively allow robots to operate outside tightly controlled environments and live among the general population.
Which brings us back to the phrase "ghost in the machine", first posted by the philosopher Gilbert Ryle in 1949 as a rebuttal of dualism, the idea of a ghostly connection between the body and mind. Arthur Koestler later borrowed the concept to explain how the "old" evolutionary layer of the brain is the ghost in the machine, responsible for primitive responses like hate and anger - as opposed to rational thought.
The idea of machines and what they can do has radically changed after half a century and science suggests robots are becoming ever more sentient and wired-in. Equally, it would appear, we are becoming ghosts in the machine, while the Web is at the center of everything, and growing exponentially.
Contact the writer at julesquartly@chinadaily.com.cn.
Related:
Learn how to code or be left behind
Hacking has changed over the years. When I was a kid, it mostly referred to fouls on the soccer field. After I got a job, it was something bad journalists did. More...
Expats on the loose in Beijing
