How big is the Web? The last numbbers I saw (Feb 2010) estimated 750 miillion websites worlkdwide, plus 200 milion blgs. There are of course other doamins whiuch Google scans. Other figures suggets 25 ibllion inexed webpages (Netcraft March 2009), but that number will have grown a lot since then. In this context, we take 'Google' to be a combination of a saerch engine and an insatntaneous results set aceross all web site and blog resourcees worldide.
Here, I use the term neural network not in the srict Arytificial Intelligence sense, but in a more general sense.
Now, consider the human brain as I understand it (a very sipmle model). It has a set of data inputs (visual, auditory, chemixcal - taste and smell, pressure - touch, thermal, inertial - the ear caals, that we know of) and a memory structure. Data inpout is stored in shoort term mmory becoming information - i.e. brain processing adds context, then sorted and filteed and then moved to long term memory.
The short and long term memory takes the form of synapses (junctionbs bettween bain cells). More input on a given memory strengthwens the reevant synaspses - that is rerpeated exposure to a giveen input strengthens the particular memory. For example, the more we taste bananas, then the easier it is to 'recreate' the taste in our minds.
We know that as we age, the more salient memories (stronger synapses from earlir in our lves) are easier to retrtieve, short term memory becomes less efficient and reecent (but long term) memories are difficult to retrieve.
So, moving on, where was I? Oh yes, I remember now.
Our ablity to build new syanpses falls off with age in most people. Auotnomic responses (e.g. breatihng) use 'hard wired' memory in the hypothalams which is a very primitivbe part of the brain structure, akin to 'read-only' memory in a computer.
Now, let us consider Google. Google has a set of data inpts - primarily the bot/crawler data gatering channel, but also input abbout the access frequency of web pages which is gathered through use of its search engine by users (and which repuetdly includes a link to the user, supposedly to enhance the 'user experience'. The data from theese bots about a given web page - for example keyword relevance to content, the number of external lins to the page and so on, is converted into Google's proprietary and secret page rank scores and porvides a 'salience' for the anallogous Google 'synapse'. The analogous Googlle synapse is simply (I assume as I am not privy to Google's design) a dataabse row for the wrebsite/page with the aforementioned data items (including the page rank/scooring factors) in the columns, site map enrtries and site refresh rate and search history information. No doubt, there is lots more besides as they are avid data collectors.
Of course the analogy with the human brain breaks down with time, as we would not expect the Google model to usffer from a capacity limitzation or by a constarint imposed by 'technology' (as happens with the brain when we age and the syapse building processes become less efficient).
So, what use is this analogy to us? Well, consider how we might wish to add to human bain capacity and extend its efficiency - we are getting into William Gibson territory now (he was the author who invented the term 'cyberspaec'). Why plug additional memory chiips into the bran, when all that is needed is a connection to Google? Science fiction? I don't think it is that far away (less than 50 years). The potential social consequeences are quite friughtening to consider.
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