From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Fri Jan 11 2002 - 12:11:56 MST
...
>
> > This is almost the exact
> > opposite of "Friendly AI".
>
> "Friendly AI" is figment of imagination, fortunately, and the idea of
> making AI anything other than purely intelligent is more dangerous than
> completely autonomous systems.
>...
An instinct is the tendency to behave in a particular manner under particular
circumstances.
It is, for now, a figment of imagination. But an intelligence without
instincts is impossible. Actually, even a simple machine without basic
instinct analogs is impossible. A tool, say a screwdriver, probably doesn't
have anything analogous, though one might consider the processed alloy's
toughness to be an analog, that's a bit of a stretch.
But an elevator has an instinct to home on a pressed "elevator call" button.
Just because we can follow out the chain of causality doesn't mean that it
isn't an instinct. When machines become more intelligent, they need a larger
number of instincts. The intelligence comes in balancing between them and
handling them in a flexible manner. Consider a CPU with only one
instruction. No matter what the instruction it isn't very useful ... in most
circumstances. As you add more instructions the circumstances that it can
handle increase. Somewhere down near this level a decision is taken that
will lead to evolution as a plant or as an animal (i.e., sessile or mobile).
A flatworm may have all of it's instincts hardwired (it currently seems
plausible). Does a bee? Dubious, but possible. But a fish definitely has a
more flexible way of relating to its instincts. (It also needs more brain
power .. flexibility costs cpu cycles.) etc.
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