"As very large webs penetrate the world, we see the first glimpses of what emerges from that net – machines that become alive, smart, and evolve – a neo-biological civilization. There is a sense in which a global mind also emerges in the network culture. The global mind is a union of computer and nature, of telephones and human brains and more. It is a very large complexity of indeterminate shape governed by an invisible hand of its own. We humans will be unconscious of what the global mind ponders. This is not because we are not smart enough, but because the design of a mind does not allow the part to understand the whole. The particular thoughts of the global mind, and its subsequent actions, will be out of our control and beyond our understanding."
Kevin Kelly, Out of Control, 1994.