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The Collective Voice of the Internet

Posted by michael on from the sorta-like-homer-simpson dept.

nycheetah submits a story about the collective voice of the internet. There's also a Bell Labs webpage with some more technical information about the project.

9 of 96 comments (clear)

  1. It's Inaccurate. by cioxx · · Score: 5, Funny

    There was no moaning in the background. The collective voice of the internet would have lots and lots of lustful outcries. Afterall, the majority of the internet is populated with porn.

  2. Hrmm by acehole · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well that's all and good, but I really would like to meet the 'internet' on the street. Could you imagine what sort of person it would be?

    I'd be expecting a cross dressing mental patient complete with tinfoil hat dribbling nonsense at a mind boggling rate only allowing you to catch a few words here and there like "faked moon landing", "brittney spears nude", "you camping fag!" and "you're transmitting an IP address!".

    Of course I wouldnt have to give it any money, It would have already taken my credit card numbers for it's own penis enlargement addiction.

    --
    Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
  3. Bell's page appears Slashdotted, already?! by tgrotvedt · · Score: 5, Funny
    It looks like Bell's servers have gone down after only a couple of minutes!

    WARNING: The collective voice of Bell's admins will not be suitable for young children.

    --
    What makes a man want to be a mouse? (Python's Flying Circus)
  4. Useless by Lord+Puppet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "There's also a Bell Labs webpage with some more technical information about the project."

    Great, but so far, you haven't provided any information. I thought that the purpose of the summary was to summarise. How is anyone supposed to know whether this article is worth reading if you don't tell us what it's about?

  5. Forget about art. This is a weapon! by ArcSecond · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Maybe they can use this principle for security, too... have some "Rain Man"-type sit in a chair and monitor the composite sounds of the internet, scanning for a particular pattern.

    I wonder what the sound of a DDOS would be? A waterfall? Maybe a port scan would be a rising set of tones? And some cop in a LOLITA chat room would sound like (what else?) the theme from Jaws.

    --

    I've got a bad attitude and karma to burn. Go ahead. Mod me down.

  6. Can the web become conscious? by Xavier000 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    People may think this is a ridiculous question, but perhaps one that needs to be asked. First to put it in context. Inside most human brains are about a billion connections that communicate to a greater and lesser extent to those synapses directly in contact with them. The collective 'noise' from the electrical charges between the synapses somehow gives form to human consciousness. The electrical energy helps store memories and a bunch of other things, too.
    I read an article once by an Australian author Peter Goldsworthhy (if anyone is interested it is in his book Navel Gazing) that pondered whether or not China could collectively gain a consciousness, based on the same principle. (A billion people, all in contact with those around them, much as synapses are). I don't know how many people are connected to the web, but using a healthy dose of hope and suspending disbelief, does anyone have any ideas on whether or not the web can gain a consciousness?

  7. Countless others... by archeopterix · · Score: 4, Interesting
    From the article:
    Countless others are with you when you browse the web, some reading the same words at the same time, and yet you have no way of sensing their presence.
    I remember a project that addressed this issue more directly - namely providing you with a client that allowed you to chat with folks visiting the same website. Cool idea, except for the privacy issues - the client of course had to report what websites you are visiting. The project was called 'gooey' or something similar. I guess it never took off. Well, they didn't have a Linux client, serves them right :-)
  8. Shhhh.... by plaxion · · Score: 4, Funny

    Keep it down out there! Someone could be viewing this from a library.

  9. When I watch TV there are even more. . . by kfg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    people watching it at the same time. When I wash my car, read a book, eat dinner or just take a leak there are perhaps millions engaging in the same activity at the same time.

    Big deal. It isn't some mystical fact. Just a fact. It conveys no information other than the fact that there are billions of people who at any given time are doing one of a fairly limited set of things.

    We read greater things into it primarily because we are wired to seek acceptence from the tribal unit by behaving in similar fashions to the group. Geeks are nonconformists, although they tend to be nonconformist in the same sense that hippies and Japanese teens are "nonconformist." i.e., conform the same as me or you are "out."

    The idea of someone surfing the same page as you at the same time gives the illusion of "group membership" with that person even though no such "group" actually exists.

    It's a literal "feel good" idea of no actual signifigance. Your "group" membership is actually far closer with the guy that stocked the shelves at the supermarket where you buy your food or that damned cop who wouldn't let you off with a warning.

    This is not to say that real groups aren't forged over the internet. Just that they aren't any more "golly gee" than any other such tenuous groups, like everyone who watched Friends last night.

    KFG