From: Stirling Westrup (sti@cam.org)
Date: Tue Jul 31 2001 - 05:59:34 MDT
Ben Goertzel wrote:
> > From: "Stirling Westrup" <sti@cam.org>
> >
> > Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
> >
> > > The Singularity is defined to occur as soon as any greater-than-human
> > > intelligence comes into existence - big or small. It has to be genuine,
> > > hardware transhumanity, not just humans put together in interesting shapes,
> > > but that's it.
> >
> > By who's definition?
>
> Not mine.
>
> Counterargument 2)
>
> It's not inconceivable either that we could create superb nanotechnology,
> molecular assemblers, etc., but discover that for complex reasons of physical
> law and complexity science, there is NO WAY TO MAKE AN INTELLIGENCE
> SIGNIFICANTLY GREATER THAN HUMAN INTELLIGENCE. I think this is immensely
> unlikely but it's not impossible. In this case we could reshape the
> solar system into a perfect image of Ronald McDonald's butt, create free food
> for all and infinite molecularly-induced orgasmic bliss on command, travel
> between universes on quark-powered Razor scooters, and do all sorts of
> other funky-cool Singularity-ish stuff, but NOT create superhuman
> intelligence...
I tend to agree with your counterarguments, but would just like to point
out how enormously difficult many proposed nanotech projects would be
without some extremely sophisticated controlling software. It may even be
the case that strong AI is a prerequisite to making many of our nanotech
visions come true.
> I happen to agree with Eli that the creation of transhuman intelligence is
> both the most likely path to a Singularity, and very likely to lead to a
> Singularity if it occurs. But these statements can't reasonably be posited
> with 100% certainty, and hence they're not the *definition* of the
> technological Singularity.
Fine. I was just trying to point out that there many be very MANY routes
to a Singularity. Something the Bill Joy's have yet to realize.
--
Stirling Westrup | Use of the Internet by this poster
sti@cam.org | is not to be construed as a tacit
| endorsement of Western Technological
| Civilization or its appurtenances.
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