AI and The Future of the Internet: Better, Bigger, Smarter

Dateline: October 19, 1997

THE Internet is critical to AI in two inter-related ways:

1. As an environment for the continued evolution of existing intelligent life. Evolution shows that if existing life is given access to a new environment, then that life will occupy and exploit it. The Net is an environment for all forms of intelligent life to exploit. Human life is obviously doing so, in part to create artificial life in the form of bots and alife beings which themselves will soon begin to exploit their environment.
2. As an environment for the evolutionary emergence of new forms of intelligent life. Create a nourishing environment, and life will spontaneously self-organize and emerge. The Net is a nourishing environment, a womb for digital beings.

Since it is so important, it is as well to look at its past and future development to see what that might tell us about the future development of AI.

For the record, I should mention two current U.S. initiatives specifically designed to further Internet development: the NGI (Next Generation Internet) initiative, and the Internet2 project. In the words of "Father of the Internet" and MCI Vice President Vinton Cerf, NGI is a research program devoted to uncovering the technologies needed for the next generations of Internet, while Internet2 is a university initiative to obtain better quality Internet service in support of research. The two, he notes, are distinct efforts; NGI being a research program and Internet2 an infrastructure development program. Such initiatives are welcome and worthwhile, but the bulk of Internet development will continue to stem from the efforts of myriad developers worldwide.

The many ways in which the Internet will develop can be boiled down to three complementary directions: Better, Bigger, Smarter. These directions are self-sustaining, like a nuclear chain reaction. They feed one another. A better Internet causes more people to use it, so it gets bigger. A bigger Internet grows more complex and harder to manage, so it gets smarter. Smarter makes things better, which . . . . You catch my drift.

Better

In the following paragraphs I have selected what I consider to be the most important aspects of the Net, and then show how each has progressed and (in bold italics) how they will continue to progress:

Server platform: Mainframes è Minicomputers è RISC workstations è PCs

Server operating system: Custom/proprietary è UNIX è any OS

Client operating system: Custom/proprietary è UNIX è DOS/Mac è Windows è any OS

Principal development language: C/PERL è HTML/CGI è VRML/Java

Visual interface: Text è 2-D graphics è 3-D graphics è Full immersion within a 3-D stereovisual interface

Input/control devices: Keyboard è Mouse/joystick è Microphone è Data glove/suit è Cerebral implant

Output modes: Still image è Video (with sound) è Holographic video

Navigation: Command line è Gopher menus è Web hyperlinks

Search methods: Programmed commands è Gopher menu tree è Web menu tree è Search engines è Individual searchbots è Digital personal assistants

Human–Human interaction modes (text): None è E-mail è Usenet, IRC, MUDs è Web-integrated chat/BBS

Human–Human interaction modes (voice): None è Telephony è Conferencing

Human languages: Mainly English è All languages, via automatic speech recognition (ASR) and automatic language translation (ALT) technology

Knowledge base: U.S. Defense Dept. information è Academic knowledge è Government information è Commercial information è News services è Personal information è Entire Library of Congress + international, national, state, and local government archives

Governance: Strict U.S. Defense Dept. control è Academic control è Anarchy è Commercial control è Democratic consensual control

Each of the progressive developments outlined above has contributed to making the Net a better environment, and this in turn has spurred growth. Next week’s article documents the growth of the Net.

Until next week,

NEXT WEEK: The Future of the Internet: Bigger.

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