238 12 The Engineering and Development of Ethics yet that also has its own self-model and global workspace. Both the individuals and the meta- mind should be capable of deliberative, rational thought, to have a true “mindplex.” It’s unlikely that human society or the Internet meet this criterion yet; and a system like an ant colony seems not to either, because even though it has some degree of intelligence on both the individual and collective levels, that degree of intelligence is not very great. But it seems quite feasible that the global brain, at a certain stage of its development, will take the unfamiliar but fascinating form of a mindplex. Currently the best way to explain what happens on the Net is to talk about the various parts of the Net: particular websites, social networks, viruses, and so forth. But there will come a point when this is no longer the case, when the Net has sufficient high-level dynamics of its own that the way to explain any one part of the Net will be by reference to it relations with the whole: and not just the dynamics of the whole, but the intentions and understanding of the whole. This transition to Net-as-mindplex, we suspect, will come about largely through the interactions of AI systems - intelligent programs acting on behalf of various individuals and organizations, who will collaborate and collectively constitute something halfway between a society of Al’s and an emergent mind whose lobes are various AI agents serving various goals. The Phase 2 Internet, as it verges into mindplex-ness, will likely have a complex, sprawling architecture, growing out of the architecture on the Net we experience today. The following components at least can be expected: e A vast variety of “client computers,” some old, some new, some powerful, some weak — including many mobile and embedded devices not explicitly thought of as “computers.” Some of these will contribute little to Internet intelligence, mainly being passive recipients. Others will