From: Dan Clemmensen (dgc@shirenet.com)
Date: Sat Sep 28 1996 - 11:58:03 MDT
Robin Hanson wrote:
>
[SNIP]
> Where do you folks think intelligence, the ability to solve mental
> problems, resides? If we talk about speeding up brains, well those
> are just faster brains of the same intelligence. If we talk about
> improving brains by giving them better software, i.e. better concepts
> and insights, well that is just brains of the same intelligence who
> know more. Somewhere you think that there is some special central
> quality that remains fixed now, but will suddenly explode to higher and
> higher levels once agents can hack their hardware.
>
> Maybe, but maybe also what makes us smart is bascially what we know
> and how fast we can think - maybe there isn't much more that matters.
> If so, the ability to hack hardware will bring a big one-time jump in
> raw speed, which will slow down into diminishing returns as most of
> the easy speedups are found. And maybe if there are some qualitative
> improvements possible in "basic intelligence", they won't be at all
> easy to find.
>
I speculate that "intelligence" has many components. Among the more
important
compnents are the knowlwdge base and the speed, as you also speculate.
I'd
add that interactions between the speed and the knowledge are likely to
constitute an important additional component. For purposes of the
feedback,
we can restrict the discussion of inteligence to "technical creative
intelligence." Other types of intellectual acrtivity are important and
valuable, but not relevant to the feedback mechanism.
As it happens, the argumant for a rapid feedback mechanism doesn't
depend
on the whole mechanism of intelligence. It depends on some assumptions
that
are IMO simpler and more obvious:
1) Speed and knowledge base are important components of
intelligence.
2) We will be able to increase the both the speed and the knowlege
base
of existing humans by using computers and new software and
interfaces.
3) A more intelligent researcher can develop a better understanding
of
the basis of intelligence, and can therefore increase
intelligence
further, either through better computer hardware and software or
by
other means.
The get an initial increase from the first two assumptions, which then
leads to
further increases via the third.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:35:46 MST