- From: Lee Jonas <lee.jonas@cakehouse.co.uk>
- Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 13:13:33 -0000
- To: "'Danny Ayers'" <danny@panlanka.net>, "Frank V. Castellucci" <frankc@colconsulting.com>, Sampo Syreeni <decoy@iki.fi>
- Cc: David Allsopp <dallsopp@signal.dera.gov.uk>, www-rdf-interest@w3.org
I'd like to think that all this Semantic Web stuff is not just in order to create an intelligence that is comparable with a single human! I prefer to look at it as a complex artificial super-organism with a higher level of consciousness, whose functions are performed by its myriad and diverse 'cells' (computers *and* individuals). These cells are in a symbiotic relationship with the super-organism, contributing to its existance and evolution, accutely aware of the specific cells they interact with, but never completely aware of the higher conscience in its totality. But maybe I'm just being daft! Regards Lee -----Original Message----- From: Danny Ayers [mailto:danny@panlanka.net] Sent: 15 March 2001 16:13 To: Frank V. Castellucci; Sampo Syreeni Cc: David Allsopp; www-rdf-interest@w3.org Subject: RE: Article: SW = ( SM + SC ) <- But! Is every neurone an island? What is the cluster ratio? And from <- that, what is the function it provides? Who/What are the collaborators? Fair questions, and one's that shouldn't be impossible to answer (apart from maybe the last ;-) <- >> and various other sites estimate 100 billion (10^12) neurones in the <- >> human brain, so I don't think we're there yet... Ok, I was in a pretty large ballpark. I'm still a little uncertain of the figure (does 100 billion = 10^12? - always had trouble with billions - uk/us different?) So how many hosts ~ 10^8? How do you think the processing power of a typical host compares with 10^4 biological neurones? <- > And let's not forget that the information storage capacity is <- linked more to <- > the number of synapses than neurones themselves. That number <- is estimated to <- > be some three or four orders of magnitude greater still. Being crude, say a synapse represents 1 bit - what's 10^16 bits in regular units? I can't be bothered getting the abacus out, because if I remember correctly the synapses are to do with the connections between the neurones, maybe like I/O paths. Serious interconnectivity, staggeringly massive parallelism. If that's how it works (personally I prefer this kind of theory to the quantum ones though). It's got pretty fine interfaces to the outside world as well. I wonder what would happen if you linked up 10^12 of them with a slow serial connection... Let me try again with the original point, I obviously didn't make it woolly enough - at one scale we know how a computer works, at the other end we have a pretty weird system that is likely to be governed by similar information processing laws (or physical laws if you prefer). When the web gets semantic, I'd think you were likely to be approaching Weirdness on the Wold. Anyway - metaphysics aside, what's the main purpose of this living organism with the wildly complex system on its shoulders - live long enough to breed? I wonder if the SW will ever manage it ;-) --- Danny Ayers http://www.isacat.net
Received on Friday, 16 March 2001 08:14:41 UTC