Changes

With the computer we could offload mental processes to machines. They could calculate far faster and more  accurately than humans, and had more accurate memory for data and could compare and manipulate it for us much faster. These machines made it possible to offload a lot of our thinking the way machines allowed us to offload physical labor.  

With the computer we could offload mental processes to machines. They could calculate far faster and more  accurately than humans, and had more accurate memory for data and could compare and manipulate it for us much faster. These machines made it possible to offload a lot of our thinking the way machines allowed us to offload physical labor.  

But when computers started to be networked even new emergent propertied surfaced. The networked computers were far more than the sum of their CPUs, memory, and storage. It allowed computers to be optimized for special functions that they made available to the whole network and if any part of the Internet had a new ability then they whole of humanity had that ability. And those abilities combined together to form new abilities as an emergent property of the network.

But when computers started to be networked even new emergent propertied surfaced. The networked computers were far more than the sum of their CPUs, memory, and storage. It allowed computers to be optimized for special functions that they made available to the whole network and if any part of the Internet had a new ability then they whole of humanity had that ability. And those abilities combined together to form new abilities as an emergent property of the network.

For example, I used my cell phone app Fandango to look up a movie. It accessed information about the movie from publishers and then accessed where it was playing from data that came from theaters. After selecting the movie I could then buy a ticket. The ticket sale talked to a credit card clearing process and the ticket was sold to me and that sale was communicated back to the theater along with a process that divided up the money to everyong getting their cut which was electronically deposited into their respective accounts.

For example, I used my cell phone app Fandango to look up a movie. It accessed information about the movie from publishers and then accessed where it was playing from data that came from theaters. After selecting the movie I could then buy a ticket. The ticket sale talked to a credit card clearing process and the ticket was sold to me and that sale was communicated back to the theater along with a process that divided up the money to everyone getting their cut which was electronically deposited into their respective accounts.

 

The app then asked me if I wanted to add it as an event to my calendar, and I touched "Yes". The calendar sent the data to Google where it knew both when and where the movie was, and where I was in relation to the theater. It also picked up traffic data to know what the roads were like and then calculated how long it would take me to get there and subtracted that from the start time of the movie to send me an alert telling me it's time to head that way.

The app then asked me if I wanted to add it as an event to my calendar, and I touched "Yes". The calendar sent the data to Google where it knew both when and where the movie was.

This process demonstrates the emergent properties of the Internet which is a construct that humanity created for itself to evolve forward. But because of the rate of technological advancement and that our own evolution is tied to this advancement, it through humanity into a form of hyper evolution, which is where we are today. And because we are moving so fast it seem to me that we need to understand who we are, how we got here, and where we are going so that this thing doesn't go so fast that it runs off the rails and crashes before we figured out what is happening. We need to get out ahead of it and figure it out so that we are in control of our own evolution and our own destiny.