From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sun May 12 2002 - 13:39:50 MDT
Robert writes
> On Sun, 12 May 2002, Eugen Leitl wrote:
>
> > There's enough fuel on the surface and the few m of humus layer to
> > transform Earth's surface (strictly) radically in a course of a few days.
>
> If unopposed. You are also assuming an AI bright enough to be able
> to develop the means of turning raw materials into computronium
> optimized for the AI -- that is hardly something that occurs in
> a few days.
First, would someone define computronium? From context, I thought that
I knew last year what was being discussed---now I'm not so sure. But
from this sentence, I'll point out that obtaining the *optimum*
configuration immediately does not seem to be the AI's optimal
course.
> There are 10E148 patterns of atoms that can occupy a cubic nanometer
> [Drexler, '92]. Even the most advanced AI can't explore a fraction of
> that in a few days.
Actually, *that* would depend on the severity of the Singularity.
But even so, like I say, the optimal configuration is hardly needed.
> Since we can leap to space the ability to do so would presumably
> a very early capability. Thus it makes much more sense to leap
> to space (an environment humans can't easily adapt to) and optimize
> yourself from there.
Why, exactly? Getting to space is very taxing for anyone or anything
to do compared to horizontal expansion. And when you write "if
unopposed", what do you have in mind? The idea is that the *first*
AI to get to second-by-second order of magnitude improvement leaves
all the rest of them in the dust, and doubtless extends its influence
very quickly into the camp of any potential rivals.
Lee
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