From: O'Regan, Emlyn (Emlyn.ORegan@actew.com.au)
Date: Mon Aug 16 1999 - 02:38:47 MDT
I'm not sure if this is how the thread started, but any way, I'll jump in
feet first:
Say you were a super super ... super intelligence (S^NI), modified beyond
all comparison with the gaussian version of yourself. After a particular new
modification to jump you up to a new level of intelligence, you find that
you are so awesomely intelligent that you can predict with 99.99% accuracy
the outcome of any action that you might consider, for a reasonably long
period (longer than you'd need to be able to assess whether goals were met
or not).
Also, you've got some kind of goal system which guides your decisions. Being
as brilliant as you are, you find that you always come up with a clear goal
mix in any situation. So you have quite solid criteria against which to
judge possible action paths (This is implied by the above really, but I
thought I'd spell it out here).
So what you find is that you have functionally lost free will. You always
know what the correct decision is, at least to a high enough level of
confidence that you cannot justify any other course. Your goal evaluation
mechanism is really fed into by your decision making system (you set your
own goals) so that is predetermined by your original goal state and the
environment over time, both of which you have detailed knowledge regarding
(ick! is english my first language?).
I would conjecture that in such a state, motivation would fall. Motivation
seems based, at least to me, on the ability to attempt to realise your
goals, which is ultimately about exercising your will, exerting it over the
universe. If free will has dissapeared in a functional sense, what does
continued action matter?
So you as an S^NI would either give up (functional/literal suicide) or dumb
down, to recover free will, and so purpose, and so motivation, purely as a
result of survival instinct.
Is there then a cap on how smart you can get before you self limit your
mind? In any case, would this method work at all? Or would the cat be out of
the bag? Would you find that the knowledge that you could function in a
superior manner (having been proved by experience) take the wind out of the
sails of you as an S^(N-1)I remove motivation anyway? For an intelligence
like this, an essential ingredient in motivation must be pushing the limits
of intelligence, else why would you have bothered to transcend in the first
place?
Once you know that you have done all that you can do without losing your
identity, do you lose all motivation, and thus identity, anyway?
Emlyn, S^(-N-1)I
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