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Sun, 26 Oct 2003
The Pulse
I think I'm starting to feel the pulse. The Internet is a vast web of information exchange. It's far too large, even if one could manage to monitor everything, to really get a high-level overview of all the new data that's added to the web. Almost.
On that web there are many nodes that will digest and summarize the information flowing around/through them. There are also nodes that look for patterns, and extract meaning: a news site that is regularly updated, a blogger's site which has interesting links and ideas posted on it. Let's call each of these nodes "neurons". These neurons act as sensors for their environment: a blogger who complains about the weather, a news station that reports on a local crime. If they could be monitored, say via a standard protocol, one get a high-level view of the union of all the neurons monitored.
These neurons are not isolated. In fact, most of them will monitor other neurons, other information feeds, other events and generate output based on their observations. These information feeds, connecting neuron to neuron, could be paralleled with the brain's inter-neuron connective structures: "dendrites". Dendrites function by passing signals from neuron to neuron, creating a network of information flow.
What's the point of this metaphor? Well, it's nowhere near the density of a human brain, but each person on the web functions as a neuron. Information flows through the Internet, regulated and filtered by each of these neurons. I've started adding RSS feeds to a centralized aggregator. I have this insatiable urge to keep adding more feeds, to become more tied in, and monitor more neurons. With what goal? Well, to find the Nodal Points, as another blogger called them. The interesting things being passed around; the things that "matter" to the Internet as a collective.
One type of these nodal points are the ever-popular memes. I often consider memes to be information viruses, but now I'm starting to think of them more as signals that happen to pass particularly well from neuron to neuron.
One such example of this is the site, Friendster. I was very amused to learn of its existence one day, chat about it on IRC that evening, be IM'd by two friends from RIT (within an hour of each other) the next day, and then participating in it, passing it on, the day after that.
The last step is to create a technical system for automatically digesting the feeds and sorting out the most relevant bits of information. Think of it as a Google page-ranking system for "real-time" data feeds. The more automated the system becomes, the larger it can scale and the more dendrites can form between the neurons.
What results from this ever-interlinking collective network of minds? That's a question on par with "What is the meaning of life?". The more I ponder the significance of the Internet the more I hope that the answer to both questions is the same.
Comments
Re:
Well, knowing that people like to comment on my older entries - not all are time-based - I added an email notifier to this system. So, I got the message for sure.
No, I have not read Idoru yet, though it's now been entered into my Palm's database. Eventually, I'll wander into a book store and look for books I should check out. I'll check my Palm and see Idoru - perhaps even forgetting why I wrote it (though by writing this, I'm increasing my memory of it) and perhaps pick it up. Thus adding another node in the chain, mediated by technology.
That's cool. We keep adding to knowledge that's out there, weaving ideas with search engine word proximity. I wonder if one could create a device that would create inventions by taking words that are closely related, but not directly coorelated or producting many search results. Like search for "cheese" and look through the results for some words that are not entirely related. Like, oh, "lawn". Lawn and cheese... perhaps coulb be related somehow? A silly example, but potentially useful on more obscure topics.
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Re: The Pulse
Have you ever read Idoru by William Gibson? One of its central characters introduced me to the concept of nodal points, and I've spent my time ever since exploring the internet in a sort of fluid, random motion. I do mindless things like google a term and then jump to some random result page to see if perhaps there's something out there that might be significant.
Just now, for instance, I tried just searching for the term "nodal points," and then started my results at 210 (my birth date). Just like that, I found your blog entry.
What's the significance?
Yesterday, I was trying to figure out some way to stream mass amounts of data into a single location and wade through it hoping to find something else that caught my eye. I'm familiar with RSS feeds, but I've never heard of a central aggregator.
Thus, your blog entry has become a nodal point for me. Just learning the term "central aggregator" has opened up a whole new realm of search information.
Since you wrote this article so long ago, there's really no way of knowing whether or not you'll even get this message. Even if you do, there's no real guarantee it will mean much to you. But you've pushed my own research into another direction entirely, which to me is what the pulse is all about to begin with.