Sam Spade's San Francisco

A hyperlink is much like a synapse in the brain. Both work by making associations between nodes. Each unit of thinking in the brain — an idea, for example — grows by gaining links to other thoughts. The greater the number of synapses connecting to an idea, the stronger it becomes. Similarly, the more heavily linked a Web node is, the greater its value to the Machine.

In the photo: IT consultant Pierre Kroma at the world's largest computer fair CeBIT in Hanover, Germany. AP Photo byJan Bauer.

Moreover, the number of hyperlinks in the World Wide Web is approaching that of synapses in the human brain. But the Machine contains a million times more transistors than you have neurons in your head. And, unlike your brain, it's growing at a rate that outpaces Moore's law. By 2040, the planetary computer will attain as much processing power as all 7 billion human brains on Earth.

But the Machine also includes us. After all, our brains are programming and underpinning it. As much as we will come to depend on the One Machine (who needs memory when you've got Google?), it will depend on our minds for a sustaining river of input. We are headed toward a singular destiny: one vast computer composed of billions of chips and billions of brains, enveloping the planet in a single sphere of intelligence.

Does this sound like a novel from Stephen King? Well, it's not. This story is real. Read the rest of the story here from Wired.com.