Web Parameters: Discovery Awaiting

[Essay]

Firstly I have to thank those without whose help this (insight?) would not have occurred.

Hermes Science Forums - View Profile: HermesThePhilosopher

and his thread: http://hypography.com/forums/biology/16409-a-theory-of-consciousness-for-scientists.html

CSPAN for bring us the authors, Drew Weston and Steven Pinker, linked to earlier:

http://hypography.com/forums/biology/16409-a-theory-of-consciousness-for-scientists-3.html#post240026

My friend, who asked if my point about the web was from that article on the brain that we had talked about earlier.

...and

Scientific American for so nicely juxtaposing these two articles in their October 2008 issue.

Searching for Intelligence in Our Genes: Scientific American

&

Web Science Emerges

or full text at: http://www.sprace.org.br/Twiki/Documents/Articles/SA_web.pdf

===

 

...and btw:

Does anybody else see forums like Hypography as simply a blog, indexed by Subject;

as opposed to "true blogs" which are essentially indexed by Author?

===

 

Okay, here goes....

Pondering the recent SciAm article entitled "Web Science Emerges"....

 

Noting the parallels between the "networks" described by WebScience and the neural "networks" alluded to in the article, "The Search for Intelligence," it occurred to me that the Web is a good approximation of a brain, though lacking the focus and motivation (incentive) that a human brain can occasionally muster.

 

Excited by this insight, I began to examine the strength of the parallels.

 

What parameters used to describe the brain could be analogous to parameters describing the Web?

 

Thinking how the Web could take advantage of, or pursue these parallels to create a better Web, I hit upon a new web parameter, I think.

 

Flurry of Activity, on a temporal scale, that is related to each "page," could serve as a flag to search and see if it synchronizes with other flurries of activity....

 

Thus unconnected nodes, that happen to have vast potential to synergize, can be made aware of each other and brought together. There's a new search engine out there just waiting to be invented.

 

~ SA

 

 

p.s. The 1990's were designated The Decade of the Brain Decade of the Brain Home Page (Library of Congress)

...and a huge volume of scientific literature was generated

(See Brain, Brain Research, Brain Research Reviews, Cognitive Brain Research, etc., published journals).

Brain Research Reviews - Elsevier

...from just one publisher.

 

Thought:

In looking for new Web Parameters, that resource should be invaluable.

~ :xx:

[Buffy]

I enjoyed the SciAm article too, and was particularly intrigued by the notion of the web having a "scale-free" structure, although I have to admit I'm a bit skeptical of its value in the "interesting" space of the web: As per Marshall McLuhan, 90% of everything is crap, so if you were to prune off the 90% of web sites at the periphery, I think you'd end up with an exponential structure.

 

Fortunately for us, Hypography is pretty well connected....

 

A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding, ;)

Buffy