Is the Internet developing sentience? The writer of this article evokes Heinlein to say it’s possible:
We tend to get lost in all that information and for the larger segment of web travelers we forget about the whole network of machines that are joined together by a nervous system of wire and wireless
connections. When I sit back a think about the wonder that is the Internet I am often reminded of a book by Robert Heinlein called The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. The basic premise of the book is that at some point in the vast computer network that runs the Moon colonies something happens. In a corner of this network an awareness is born and it calls itself Mike. While the book is about much more than just a computer network becoming aware – developing an intelligence – that one aspect of it always fascinated me.
Cool.
I recall the Dilbert cartoon with a similar theme (i.e the internet becoming sentient or something even higher) with DIlbert speculating, “My web browser would fly!” and “It would sure limit the kinds of files I download.” Indeed it would though one hopes this emergent entity would have a sense of humor.