How Would The Manifestation Of The Internet Behave?

[Bab5space]

Take the entire internet and download it into an android with free will. Daily give it updates by being connected via wires for 30 min a day (ultra fast downloading of content and virtually infinite memory storage capacity).

What would he/she act like?

Curious. Wanting to add data to what they already know.

What would they know? Everything. Just looking at you they could recall your records and bring up a record of all IP address internet usage for all devices registered to you to to estimate who you are and what your interests are (google already does this, don't even ask if government does).

Morality: Wow. Knowing everything they could literally make a more informed choice than any normal human. But I think ultimately, if given free will and human desires to boot, they would follow their heart (whatever/whoever they chose to love most). In other words, they could be ANYTHING. Good or bad.

What do you think?



EDIT: I think the last thing she says is rather creepy, but I think what she would really mean... if being truly real and honest, is that a properly functioning android has no regrets and will do as programmed, with no will of it's own. It's only desire is to fulfill it's programming.

Obviously... my OP example is not that way. It is the android embodiement of the internet... with free will.

EDIT: They would probably make a living as a professional corporate spy or covert infilitrator. With all the information they already know... why not know more that the internet cannot track as easily?

Creepy I know.

 

[phinds]

Take the entire internet and download it into an android with free will. What would he/she act like?

It would be utterly insane, but it would have a cute meow.

 

[phinds]

What would they know? Everything.

No, they wouldn't "know" anything, they would just have a lot of disjointed information but you're probably right that they could make money working for advertisers

 

[Bab5space]

No, they wouldn't "know" anything, they would just have a lot of disjointed information but you're probably right that they could make money working for advertisers

Personal information they would know. Social numbers, addresses... the dark web etc.

Worse yet... all types of covert spy stuff no (average person) one should know .

But a lot of the info would be borderline useless or subject to change. Yeah.

The daily updates is what makes it concerning and even dangerous.

 

[Helios]

This idea is near a Dr. Who episode with an escaped Dalek that "downloaded the internet"

 

[Rive]

What would he/she act like?

With or without the porn filter on?

... guess we can/better discuss only the former...

 

[member 656954]

What would they know? Everything.

That's probably not true. We surround ourselves with lots of non-digital content and many transactions are not on the internet, and for many people, our public transactions are either an idealized representation or hidden behind avatars.

But I'll go with the flow a bit...

First up, finding anything but the most trivial of content about any particular person would be time consuming, even for a CPU-heavy android. Let's imagine you meet the android. Then what? It stares at you for a long while as it searches it's "virtually infinite memory storage" (which would take a virtually infinite amount of time, surely?), cross referencing and indexing until it has the right 'you' from all the other people who might be you.

Then you talk. Depending on how the android handles this, it could easily be a creepy conversation with a stalker bot who seems to know waaay too much about your breakfast insta photos and those LinkedIn rants about global warming! It would be up to date on lots of topics, but too many, it would seem like a boring know-it-all because anything you raised, it already knows. And it would have inferred your opinion on many, many things from cross-referencing your digital footprint, so either you're falling in love with yourself as it mirrors you in real-time, or you're wondering if it's taking the mickey and subtly mocking you.

Curious. Wanting to add data to what they already know.

Maybe. But we're already seeing personality effects of a steady diet of internet and triggering curiosity does not seem to be one of them. Narcissism, dopamine addiction, negative body image, and impacted self-esteem appear to be more likely, so our android might actually collapse into a puddle of neurosis, rather than skip about with curiosity. Also, the mundane physical world, with its firmed rooted 'here and now', may not compare to the superset of 'reality' available online. The siren song of yet another kitten upload would be a strong lure indeed compared to the thin gruel of reality

Morality: Wow. Knowing everything they could literally make a more informed choice than any normal human.

But they won't know everything. And morals are subjective, so its morality, if derived from a hyperdiet of online content, would probably be skewed toward hate, derision, and cattiness. As for 'follow their heart', there's a truckload of assumptions in that but it is debatable that an android, lacking a limbic system, will ever feel analogs our human emotions of this kind, even with free will (which you can argue does not exist in any event).

It is common in sc-fi for AIs to drift away from their human origins and eventually suicide (or transform to another realm) and I think that any self-aware, free-willed android, forced to endure a daily upload of "the internet" would quickly put a shotgun to their hafnium carbide head and happily pull the trigger!

 

[RPinPA]

I'm astonished that the thread has gotten this long and nobody has posted Cat Pictures Please which comes very close to addressing your question. (Premise: An unspecified Very Large Search Engine is sentient and has all that information about us. And it wants to be helpful, because after all that was what it was designed to be.)

 

[OCR]

And it wants to be helpful. . .

Ya Think?

.

 

[Bab5space]

That's probably not true. We surround ourselves with lots of non-digital content and many transactions are not on the internet, and for many people, our public transactions are either an idealized representation or hidden behind avatars.

But I'll go with the flow a bit...

First up, finding anything but the most trivial of content about any particular person would be time consuming, even for a CPU-heavy android. Let's imagine you meet the android. Then what? It stares at you for a long while as it searches it's "virtually infinite memory storage" (which would take a virtually infinite amount of time, surely?), cross referencing and indexing until it has the right 'you' from all the other people who might be you.

Then you talk. Depending on how the android handles this, it could easily be a creepy conversation with a stalker bot who seems to know waaay too much about your breakfast insta photos and those LinkedIn rants about global warming! It would be up to date on lots of topics, but too many, it would seem like a boring know-it-all because anything you raised, it already knows. And it would have inferred your opinion on many, many things from cross-referencing your digital footprint, so either you're falling in love with yourself as it mirrors you in real-time, or you're wondering if it's taking the mickey and subtly mocking you.
Maybe. But we're already seeing personality effects of a steady diet of internet and triggering curiosity does not seem to be one of them. Narcissism, dopamine addiction, negative body image, and impacted self-esteem appear to be more likely, so our android might actually collapse into a puddle of neurosis, rather than skip about with curiosity. Also, the mundane physical world, with its firmed rooted 'here and now', may not compare to the superset of 'reality' available online. The siren song of yet another kitten upload would be a strong lure indeed compared to the thin gruel of reality
But they won't know everything. And morals are subjective, so its morality, if derived from a hyperdiet of online content, would probably be skewed toward hate, derision, and cattiness. As for 'follow their heart', there's a truckload of assumptions in that but it is debatable that an android, lacking a limbic system, will ever feel analogs our human emotions of this kind, even with free will (which you can argue does not exist in any event).

It is common in sc-fi for AIs to drift away from their human origins and eventually suicide (or transform to another realm) and I think that any self-aware, free-willed android, forced to endure a daily upload of "the internet" would quickly put a shotgun to their hafnium carbide head and happily pull the trigger!

Perception VS reality is everything.

You envision the android as a being influenced automatically by all internet content simultaneously. Like that, with all those conflicting ideas they would surely go insane.I picture the android differently... since whoever designed it should know that allowing the entire internet to affect anyone's emotions should know it would affect their sanity for the worse.

The way my android would be would be governed by free will.

Namely... it can access any information off the net... by choice.

Naturally, any people he/she encounters she/he will be tempted to scan... so as his/her creator I would do my best to keep her around people who have squeaky cleam browsing habits.
Not the norm I know, but that is the only way to keep him/her from accidentally coming across a huge amount of obscene material.

Since I know the could still access it, but at least I could help not to get too familiar with the dark side of the internet, and encourage them to that end.
This like child rearing multiplied by a difficulty of a thousand.

 

[member 656954]

I feel you're making up the dynamics of your question as we're going alone, @Bab5space.

But, if your android has the entire internet in its head, you can't keep it from coming across any content, it's all there. Any moral compass you think you've set by your constrained environment, it's going to be swamped by third party viewpoints, even if the android never interacts with a person face-to-face.

And unless you completely redesign your setup, I don't think this scenario is anything like raising a child!

 

[Bab5space]

I feel you're making up the dynamics of your question as we're going alone, @Bab5space.

But, if your android has the entire internet in its head, you can't keep it from coming across any content, it's all there. Any moral compass you think you've set by your constrained environment, it's going to be swamped by third party viewpoints, even if the android never interacts with a person face-to-face.

And unless you completely redesign your setup, I don't think this scenario is anything like raising a child!

How many times have I heard that before?

But choice is still a powerful factor. He/she can choose not to look at the ugly side of the net, just as many already do and many still choose to.

Even if they do out of curiosity (likely) they are more likely to reject things if tbey are taught beforehsnd.

If not a child then what are we raising? A spy? A weapon? An advertiser I am the flesh? A stalker?

They could be all that and more.. but priorities matter.Who they choose to be is up to them. As it should be

Come now... unless you have certain role in mind to steer them to.

 

[member 656954]

Come now... unless you have certain role in mind to steer them to.

Nope. I'm struggling to understand the intent of your OP, actually. You posit an android that is the embodiment of the entire internet, then declare it shouldn't be looking at large swathes of it. How does it do that? The stuff is literally in its head and it lacks our human sensibilities, moral code, emotional baseline, etc. to assess what's appropriate. And that's a judgement call right there. I love violent Asian kung fu movies, my wife not at all...who's right in the context of appropriate content in this case?

If your android is a proxy for human reflection or development, that's fine, but that is not what you suggested initially.

And how does all this relate to sci-fi writing and world building, anyway?

 

[DaveC426913]

It would kind of depend on how you choose to interpret

...an android with free will.

But if you want to read one carefully-considered account of how it would go, read Robert J. Sawyer's Hugo and Aurora-winning WWW trilogy (Wake, Watch, Wonder) - the story of the the internet becoming self-aware.

 

[Bab5space]

Nope. I'm struggling to understand the intent of your OP, actually. You posit an android that is the embodiment of the entire internet, then declare it shouldn't be looking at large swathes of it. How does it do that? The stuff is literally in its head and it lacks our human sensibilities, moral code, emotional baseline, etc. to assess what's appropriate. And that's a judgement call right there. I love violent Asian kung fu movies, my wife not at all...who's right in the context of appropriate content in this case?

If your android is a proxy for human reflection or development, that's fine, but that is not what you suggested initially.

And how does all this relate to sci-fi writing and world building, anyway?

I did mention free will in the OP. To be sure this is simplistic. Analogies and all.

I even mentioned that that the android could be made with human desires, which would inevitably cause it to be both proactive and reactive regarding what it knows.

An insane embodiment of the internet is not appealing as it cannot function and the internet DOES have a function.

It's threefold.

1. Communication.
2. Coordination.
3. Commerce

That is the ENTIRE purpose of the internet's reason for existing.

A living embodiment of the internet would use it's vast wealth of knowledge to communicate (spill secrets to the highest bidder), coordinate (to highest bidder again), and win the stocks and bonds like never before) commerce.

Worldbuilding? Perhaps... it's in consideration.

I think it woukd also be cool if the net became self aware and began to exert it's own control covertly.

 

[DaveC426913]

I think it woukd also be cool if the net became self aware and began to exert it's own control covertly.

Read Sawyer's books, mentioned above.

His "Webmind" has a different, more positive philosophy towards humans, and makes its intent known to humans in a rather spectacular way.

 

[Rive]

An insane embodiment of the internet is not appealing as it cannot function and the internet DOES have a function.

It has a function, but that belongs to us and not to the internet. You can find anything online: opinions and their opposition (multiple ways): also opinions the same thing being irrelevant or important and so on... Without a quite solid and independent base of knowledge as a pre-filter all that stuffed into a brain every day is just a good way to push it into schizophrenia.

 

[Rubidium_71]

I think the result might be something like the Star Trek Voyager episode Message In A Bottle, when they bulk-downloaded all available medical texts into a new Emergency Medical Hologram. When they turned it on, the hologram simply stood there and recited the downloaded information.

Another similar idea that comes to mind is Abradolf Lincler. If a fusion of just 2 ideologies has this result, then billions of different ideologies crammed into one entity would probably be even worse than this:

 

[Bab5space]

It has a function, but that belongs to us and not to the internet. You can find anything online: opinions and their opposition (multiple ways): also opinions the same thing being irrelevant or important and so on... Without a quite solid and independent base of knowledge as a pre-filter all that stuffed into a brain every day is just a good way to push it into schizophrenia.

It all comes down to whether yhe android behaves like a human or not.

What do humans want in a concise nutshell?

God: AKA answers/solutions to questions or problems we either find impossible to answer/solve or supremely difficult. As such, just about anything humans turn to for this can be considered a god, whether it is a literal god or not. Ironically evolutionists fall into this catergory, who put all their trust in human might, theories, and scientific endeavor. Who needs a god if we can do it right?

Gold: A desire for tangible benefits. Even animals have this. Do no not do something for nothing.

Glory: A desire to be liked by others.

So if an android has these qualities them their behavior will be influenced by it.

Stuff offline would influence them profoundly, and lead them to use their online abilities to profit and solve problems.

You would want an android like this on your side, because as an enemy they could do serious damage.
Humans vs a billion of these androids?

Humans lose. Hard. Knowledge is and will always be power.