Re: [MURG] meets [POLITICS]

From: Samantha Atkins (samantha@objectent.com)
Date: Mon Apr 08 2002 - 04:18:51 MDT


Mike Linksvayer wrote:

ished for all types of problems.
>>
>
> Who cares if it runs s-l-o-w? The big, huge mega-IF/question is what
> it will take to create a self-bootstrapping AI. If you've done that
> it doesn't matter whether it "thinks" 1000 times slower than humans.
> If it can self-improve, you rapdily have something way beyond human
> capabilities, it just responds on a different timescale. Vinge of course
> thought of this possibility many years ago in "True Names".

SIGH. If it things 1000 times slower than humans then it is not
a very credible threat. It can't move fast enough to escape
detection and extermination. Vinge did not exactly deal with
this possibility. Also, if it runs too slowly it is
questionable whether certain forms of intelligence will gel at all.

>
> OTOH, speed does matter. If "it" runs too slowly, it may not be stable
> enough to bootstrap, or by the time it reached an interesting level it
> could be overtaken by a later generation entity.
>
> But I don't think speed (cpu or network) is the interesting issue,
> software is. The path to much faster hardware is very clear. One can
> quibble about the year a given level of performance will be available,
> but the requisite hardware for "it" will exist in our lifetimes barring
> WW#, large asteroid impact or the like. The path to requisite software
> is wide open for debate.

Sure but that hardware will almost certainly not be the entire Net.

- samantha



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