Suppose the internet had achieved a kind of sentience…
…how would you know that the email you just received was from an actual human being?
…how would you know that the weblog you were reading was written by an actual human being?
…how would you know that the last wiki edit wasn’t some artificial construct?
If distributed, artificial intelligence existed this is how it would affect the world–through manipulation of the physical beings on this world, via misdirection, persuasion and trickery…