The One Machine Rivals the Brain
In the new issue of Wired, Kevin Kelly provides an interesting observation that the Internet has now hit approximate computational equivalence to a single human brain. The nifty little animated info-graphic is worth the look.
Each time a person clicks on a search result or creates a link to a Web page, the One Machine is being programmed. Each new link wires up a subroutine, creates a loop, and unleashes a cascade of impulses. As waves of links surge around the world, they resemble the thought patterns of a very large brain.
The One Machine contains a million times more transistors than you have neurons in your head. And, unlike your brain, it’s growing at a rate that outpaces Moore’s law. By 2040, the planetary computer will attain as much processing power as all 7 billion human brains on Earth.
The full article is here and Chris Anderson’s take on the subject is at The Long Tail.
Tags: Culture, technology, web