Let's Get a Little Esoteric...

I was enjoying an email 'conversation' with a friend recently when a thought came to me. This is a little esoteric, so if it's not your thing please skip this post.

There is a computer scientist, who is also a science fiction writer. His name is Verner Vinge. He has written fairly extensively on what he has termed "The Singularity." The singularity is the rapid acceleration of technological advance to the point that there will be superhuman intelligence. Once that point is reached, or exceeded, it will be the end of the human era as we know it. Old models or modes of existence will be discarded, and a new reality will emerge.

Imagine a graph with time depicted on the horizontal axis and the sum of human knowledge on the vertical. Assume a gradual climb from left to right as knowledge increases with the passage of time. At some point in the future, according to Vinge, the line will begin to curve ever more sharply upward to the vertical as human awareness begins to grow geometrically, or exponentially. As the growth accelerates, it in turn spurs ever more rapid understanding until finally the technological human knowledge wreaks a change on our entire existence. Wow, heady stuff, huh?

But get this. One of the things Vinge postulates as a potential catalyst for the Singularity is that "large computer networks (and their associated users) may "wake up" as a superhumanly intelligent entity." (Don't worry, I'm getting to my point.)

Now, consider Kathleen Parker's September 15, 2004, piece about the 'blogosphere.' She writes:

All of which brings me to my premise that the blogosphere isn't just a challenge to journalism in its currently stagnant state, but a potential boon to problem-solving of a higher order. The beauty of the blogosphere is that it is self-igniting, self-propelling and self-selecting, a sort of intellectual ecosystem wherein the best specimens from various disciplines descend from the ethers, converge on an issue and apply their unique talents.

Though virtually newborn, the blogosphere has blossomed exponentially in a matter of Earth-time seconds, from a few random voices to a mighty and diverse chorus of sometimes spectacular talent. Bloggers are the Big Bang of the Information Age.

It seems, therefore, not unreasonable to hope that as this new galaxy expands - with the best and brightest emerging as natural evolution commands - bloggers might apply their immense energy and collective intellect to solving an array of human problems.

In other words, something as pedestrian as the Dan Rather scandal offers the first glimpse into what could be the beginning of a collective consciousness. Each computer on the network, each blogger, is a cell with the network acting as a series of synapses, each entry, or thought, building on the other to create an instant, and greater, knowing.

Wow. Now don't you guys want to start a blog? If you do, let me know and I'll be glad to help you out.

And we now return to our regularly scheduled programming...