Anders Sandberg writes:
> I don't think we will see the Net suddenly waking up to become a god,
> I think we are already seeing the primordial soup where selfish
> packets and computer-memes spread. It will take a few billion
> internet-years for them to evolve into something smart.
Not if you seed it with the computational equivalent of a primate, and define an environment percolated with neutral filaments through fitness space.
As to spontaneous emergence, agreed, you will only get primitive viroids that way. They may crash the net, but they won't transcend.