by Ian Poole
Communication and connections between separate elements helps integrate isolated components into a cohesive whole. The unification of several parts creates an instrument much more powerful than the parts themselves.
The radiotelescope may be used as an example of this effect. Radiotelescopy is used to map the heavens using radio waves instead of light waves. Radio waves are emitted by many stars that are too faint to be distinguishable using visible light alone. Larger receivers can detect fainter signals. While one large radio dish may help detect large features of the night sky, finer details are better detected through many small receivers located across a wide area. Many separate dishes are linked together, using computers, to form one receiver that has a very large 'virtual' area. The more numerous the receivers are, the higher will be the image resolution.
In a similar way, the power of an individual neuron is not great. The power of connections between neurons, however, has resulted in one of the most complex objects ever studied by humans. The brain is much more than the sum of it's component parts. It is composed of millions of neurons, with potentially billions of connections.
To paraphrase an idea from Wired magazine, the first phone was worth nothing. The second phone made the first one worth something. Every phone sold since then has been worth the value of itself, plus the value of every other phone that it could conceivably connect with. Perhaps once, the value of a computer was in it's own capacity to solve problems. The increasing popularity of internet based computing applications demonstrates that part of the value of a computer is it's ability to connect people who share interests, regardless of spatial location.
Computer networks might become one of the more powerful tools we are developing to understand the common bonds between people. More importantly, computers may help us understand ways in which we can work together to increase our knowledge beyond our own individual understanding.