From: O'Regan, Emlyn (Emlyn.ORegan@actew.com.au)
Date: Thu Aug 19 1999 - 23:22:52 MDT
> "Robert J. Bradbury" <bradbury@www.aeiveos.com> writes:
>
> > The question comes down to *survival* in your ecological niche.
> > If SIs know all the laws of physics, how the universe works,
> > are able to watch & simulate any potential dangers, know that
> > the "magical fantasy worlds" are nothing but senseless diversions
> > for the uploads, etc. then *why not sleep*?
> >
> > You, as a human, may have "curiosity", but the real question you
> > have to answer is -- is there an endless supply of unanswered
> > questions to feed that curiosity?
>
Anders wrote:
> This is an interesting question. Obviously, there are an infinite
> number of mathematical questions to ponder (and an infinite number of
> different kinds of questions to ponder, and so on), which implies an
> infinite amount of purely mental entertainment. If we assume that SIs
> are hardcore realists (they all are decendants from Carter-Zimmerman
> polis) and avoid such fantasies, then the question is whether there
> are an endless supply of questions about the physical universe to
> explore. This seems to relate to how complex it can be. It seems that
> the most complex systems around in this scenario are the SIs
> themselves, and their activities and artefacts. I can't see any reason
> why not they could get involved in endless coevolutionary races
> towards increasing complexity, that are both relevant for their
> survival and interesting ("I wonder how the Magellan Superposition
> Alliance will react if I cause clenchirations in the armiphlange?").
>
(decoding, decoding, decoding,....) Anders, do you mean to say "Yes, there
would be endless questions to feed curiosity" ?
Also, these "magical fantasy worlds" - mmm, we might be talking about pure
mathematics here. Senseless diversions? Or is pure mathematics of the type
only SIs can manage going to be critical to SIs stepping up qualitative
levels of intelligence? Would anyone propose that there are finite limits to
what can be added to the field of mathematics?
I think that many SIs would come to the conclusion that they have hit the
bounds of this observable universe (I think that I mean observable in human
terms) , and start trying to find a way out. Probably involves a bit of
maths too.
I still think (with my poor inferior gaussian neural blob) that it must be
more useful to spend vast amounts of time using one of those great big
brains rather than lying idle. In fact, maybe you are better off being awake
in the dull moments, to do some uninterrupted super-cognition, and going
into "sleep mode" (or at least low energy, lower level intelligence mode)
during the interesting moments (you may not need SI intelligence to cope in
such a situation, and it might be too distracting to get any *real* thinking
done). Perhaps an SI gets to the point where qualitative improvements to
intelligence make no statistically significant difference to survival
chances in any situation possible in the physical universe (with the
exception of SI combat perhaps), so that all enhancements past that point
are energy waste except when used during the boring moments, to do a bit of
really deep thinking.
By the way, I'm not sure why it is supposed that an SI would be carrying
uploads around in the nooks and crannies of its god-like brain? What's the
thinking on this?
Emlyn (can't think, typing)
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