(from Computer Science Daily)
November 15, 2006
Keywords: semantic web, knowledge modeling, technological singularity, ontology, OWL
[NOTE: Browser cookies should be cleared before loading the linked pages of corporations mentioned in this article.]
Internet Black Hole Discovered
by Mark Dow
New research, to be published in the journal Information Physics,
reports the
tentative discovery of an "informational black hole" based on semantic statistical analysis of Internet content. These virtual
objects
have been hypothesized to be possible in principle for more than a
decade, but until now informational black holes
were not expected to currently exist. "There is no known mechanism for
creating a black hole so it is surprising to find one under our noses,
on a public network" said Dr. Dawn Mollzigtub, statistical mechanics
researcher and lead author of the report.
An informational black hole's postulated structure
is based on extrapolation of the properties of a technological
singularity. Introduced by Vernor Vinge in 1993, and evangelized by Ray Kurzweil
in multiple books, a technological singularity is the idea that the exponential speed
of technological improvements will produce super-human capabilities,
making the future completely unknowable.
The discovered black hole is small, and only
observable through it's effects on a single compact website, www.thetus.com.
This unexpected compactness was the primary reason the black hole was
not recognized
earlier. Information theorists had assumed the effects of an
information singularity would quickly spread across connected networks;
in this case the website/services and their interdependent software and
organizations. Apparently the software developed by Thetus
Corporation, Thetus Publisher™, was used for internal
knowledge management and became so self-referential that it subsumed
it's own
semantic network. Since the software and it's components were isolated
from
the outside world (the rest of the Internet and other organization's
web services), there was nothing resisting its informational "collapse"
upon itself.
While the content of the black hole itself is
inaccessible, the website (text and images) which is just outside of
the
black hole's event horizon can be observed. The structure of this
information is the key evidence for the existence of a black hole
contained within. Careful semantic analysis reveals that while all text
and images are entirely ontologically consistent, there is exactly
zero semantic content. This is precisely what theory predicts for the
boundary conditions of an informational black hole.
Mollzigtub speculates that it was "the complex
nature of the Thetus software, the fact that interactions with Technology Partners' software were isolated, and the use of
the software itself to generate the business and software model" that
initiated the formation of the black hole. Ongoing
investigation will determine if one of the Technology Partners (In-Q-Tel, a private, independent,
not-for-profit venture group established by the CIA), has been sucked
into the Thetus black hole, or exists as a separate entity. It is even
plausible, although less likely, that In-Q-Tel was the original black
hole that subsumed Thetus Corporation.
But by its very nature, the history of causation for
this black hole instance is forever lost. To investigate the actual formation of
an information black hole, another must be created and observed as it
collapses. But is it possible to replicate? The Thetus
website provides clues, but no prescription. Effectively it's like
having the correct words for a recipe, but neither the ingredients nor
the the correct order of the words for the recipe.
It is not known when this instance of a black hole
was formed, but it appears that it is, at most, four
years old. Its future is uncertain. If left
isolated current theory predicts that it will slowly "evaporate" as
the internal structure loses correspondance with the outside world. But
with a constant infusion of capital, it could grow. And if
it became strongly interconnected with the outside world, it
could rapidly grow by accretion as information crosses its event
horizon. Mollzigtub warns that sites linking to the Thetus webite and its
Technology Partners should be aware of this unquantifiable risk.
Officials at Thetus Corporation did not respond to a request for comments.
[ November 16, 2006
Since publication, I have had comments about this
article and questions about the properties of informational black holes. Please post comments and questions on enzymind.com, and I will do my best to address them.
11/16/06 blog entry
11/17/06 blog entry
Mark Dow ]