It depends from where you
look at things.
Powers
of Ten has been a favorite book of mine for perhaps 25 years. (A number of
web sites based on the book are available as well [here,
for instance] and the entire ten minute Charles and Ray Eames film that led to
the book is also available
online.) It's based on a simple idea, excellently executed. And to a certain extent,
over the years it's become a meme - the perspective that we have on a particular
object or event determines how we view it, the significance we bestow upon it.
Maybe there's a true purpose and direction to the universe, and our web searches
are the synapses of some gigantic brain. In this particular scenario, we're within
the thinking process, but not doing the thinking. On the other hand, maybe our
actions on the WWW are nothing more than the pounding away on keyboards of six
billion monkeys, with the complete works of Shakespeare a totally chance bi-product.
Go to: The
emergence of a higher(?) intelligence, or
Go to: Are
crowds really that smart?