Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-09-04 Thread Valentina Poletti
That sounds like a useful purpose. Yeh, I don't believe in fast and quick methods either.. but also humans tend to overestimate their own capabilities, so it will probably take more time than predicted. On 9/3/08, William Pearson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: 2008/8/28 Valentina Poletti [EMAIL

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-09-03 Thread Valentina Poletti
So it's about money then.. now THAT makes me feel less worried!! :) That explains a lot though. On 8/28/08, Matt Mahoney [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Valentina Poletti [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Got ya, thanks for the clarification. That brings up another question. Why do we want to make an AGI?

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-09-03 Thread William Pearson
2008/8/28 Valentina Poletti [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Got ya, thanks for the clarification. That brings up another question. Why do we want to make an AGI? To understand ourselves as intelligent agents better? It might enable us to have decent education policy, rehabilitation of criminals. Even if

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-29 Thread Mark Waser
Hi Terren, Obviously you need to complicated your original statement I believe that ethics is *entirely* driven by what is best evolutionarily... in such a way that we don't derive ethics from parasites. Saying that ethics is entirely driven by evolution is NOT the same as saying that

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-29 Thread Terren Suydam
--- On Fri, 8/29/08, Mark Waser [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Saying that ethics is entirely driven by evolution is NOT the same as saying that evolution always results in ethics. Ethics is computationally/cognitively expensive to successfully implement (because a stupid implementation gets

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-29 Thread Mark Waser
OK. How about this . . . . Ethics is that behavior that, when shown by you, makes me believe that I should facilitate your survival. Obviously, it is then to your (evolutionary) benefit to behave ethically. Ethics can't be explained simply by examining interactions between individuals. It's

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-29 Thread Eric Burton
I remember Richard Dawkins saying that group selection is a lie. Maybe we shoud look past it now? It seems like a problem. On 8/29/08, Mark Waser [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: OK. How about this . . . . Ethics is that behavior that, when shown by you, makes me believe that I should facilitate your

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-29 Thread Mark Waser
Group selection (as used as the term of art in evolutionary biology) does not seem to be experimentally supported (and there have been a lot of recent experiments looking for such an effect). It would be nice if people could let the idea drop unless there is actually some proof for it other

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-29 Thread Charles Hixson
Dawkins tends to see an truth, and then overstate it. What he says isn't usually exactly wrong, so much as one-sided. This may be an exception. Some meanings of group selection don't appear to map onto reality. Others map very weakly. Some have reasonable explanatory power. If you don't

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-29 Thread Matt Mahoney
Group selection is not dead, just weaker than individual selection. Altruism in many species is evidence for its existence. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_selection In any case, evolution of culture and ethics in humans is primarily memetic, not genetic. Taboos against nudity are nearly

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-28 Thread Valentina Poletti
Got ya, thanks for the clarification. That brings up another question. Why do we want to make an AGI? On 8/27/08, Matt Mahoney [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: An AGI will not design its goals. It is up to humans to define the goals of an AGI, so that it will do what we want it to do.

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-28 Thread Mark Waser
No, the state of ultimate bliss that you, I, and all other rational, goal seeking agents seek Your second statement copied below not withstanding, I *don't* seek ultimate bliss. You may say that is not what you want, but only because you are unaware of the possibilities of reprogramming

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-28 Thread Abram Demski
Mark, I second that! Matt, This is like my imaginary robot that rewires its video feed to be nothing but tan, to stimulate the pleasure drive that humans put there to make it like humans better. If we have any external goals at all, the state of bliss you refer to prevents us from achieving

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-28 Thread Mark Waser
Also, I should mention that the whole construction becomes irrelevant if we can logically describe the goal ahead of time. With the make humans happy example, something like my construction would be useful if we need to AI to *learn* what a human is and what happy is. (We then set up the pleasure

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-28 Thread Abram Demski
Mark, Actually I am sympathetic with this idea. I do think good can be defined. And, I think it can be a simple definition. However, it doesn't seem right to me to preprogram an AGI with a set ethical theory; the theory could be wrong, no matter how good it sounds. So, better to put such ideas in

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-28 Thread Mark Waser
However, it doesn't seem right to me to preprogram an AGI with a set ethical theory; the theory could be wrong, no matter how good it sounds. Why not wait until a theory is derived before making this decision? Wouldn't such a theory be a good starting point, at least? better to put such

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-28 Thread Abram Demski
Mark, I still think your definitions still sound difficult to implement, although not nearly as hard as make humans happy without modifying them. How would you define consent? You'd need a definition of decision-making entity, right? Personally, if I were to take the approach of a preprogrammed

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-28 Thread Mark Waser
Personally, if I were to take the approach of a preprogrammed ethics, I would define good in pseudo-evolutionary terms: a pattern/entity is good if it has high survival value in the long term. Patterns that are self-sustaining on their own are thus considered good, but patterns that help sustain

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-28 Thread Terren Suydam
--- On Thu, 8/28/08, Mark Waser [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Actually, I *do* define good and ethics not only in evolutionary terms but as being driven by evolution. Unlike most people, I believe that ethics is *entirely* driven by what is best evolutionarily while not believing at all in

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-28 Thread Matt Mahoney
Valentina Poletti [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Got ya, thanks for the clarification. That brings up another question. Why do we want to make an AGI? I'm glad somebody is finally asking the right question, instead of skipping over the specification to the design phase. It would avoid a lot of

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-28 Thread Matt Mahoney
Nobody wants to enter a mental state where thinking and awareness are unpleasant, at least when I describe it that way. My point is that having everything you want is not the utopia that many people think it is. But it is where we are headed. -- Matt Mahoney, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-28 Thread Mark Waser
Parasites are very successful at surviving but they don't have other goals. Try being parasitic *and* succeeding at goals other than survival. I think you'll find that your parasitic ways will rapidly get in the way of your other goals the second that you need help (or even

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-28 Thread Terren Suydam
Hi Mark, Obviously you need to complicated your original statement I believe that ethics is *entirely* driven by what is best evolutionarily... in such a way that we don't derive ethics from parasites. You did that by invoking social behavior - parasites are not social beings. So from there

AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-27 Thread Matt Mahoney
An AGI will not design its goals. It is up to humans to define the goals of an AGI, so that it will do what we want it to do. Unfortunately, this is a problem. We may or may not be successful in programming the goals of AGI to satisfy human goals. If we are not successful, then AGI will be

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-27 Thread Mark Waser
All rational goal-seeking agents must have a mental state of maximum utility where any thought or perception would be unpleasant because it would result in a different state. I'd love to see you attempt to prove the above statement. What if there are several states with utility equal to or

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-27 Thread Mark Waser
It is up to humans to define the goals of an AGI, so that it will do what we want it to do. Why must we define the goals of an AGI? What would be wrong with setting it off with strong incentives to be helpful, even stronger incentives to not be harmful, and let it chart it's own course

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-27 Thread Abram Demski
Mark, I agree that we are mired 5 steps before that; after all, AGI is not solved yet, and it is awfully hard to design prefab concepts in a knowledge representation we know nothing about! But, how does your description not correspond to giving the AGI the goals of being helpful and not harmful?

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-27 Thread Mark Waser
But, how does your description not correspond to giving the AGI the goals of being helpful and not harmful? In other words, what more does it do than simply try for these? Does it pick goals randomly such that they conflict only minimally with these? Actually, my description gave the AGI four

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-27 Thread Vladimir Nesov
On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 8:32 PM, Mark Waser [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: But, how does your description not correspond to giving the AGI the goals of being helpful and not harmful? In other words, what more does it do than simply try for these? Does it pick goals randomly such that they conflict

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-27 Thread Abram Demski
Mark, OK, I take up the challenge. Here is a different set of goal-axioms: -Good is a property of some entities. -Maximize good in the world. -A more-good entity is usually more likely to cause goodness than a less-good entity. -A more-good entity is often more likely to cause pleasure than a

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-27 Thread Mark Waser
Hi, A number of problems unfortunately . . . . -Learning is pleasurable. . . . . for humans. We can choose whether to make it so for machines or not. Doing so would be equivalent to setting a goal of learning. -Other things may be pleasurable depending on what we initially want the

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-27 Thread Abram Demski
Mark, The main motivation behind my setup was to avoid the wirehead scenario. That is why I make the explicit goodness/pleasure distinction. Whatever good is, it cannot be something directly observable, or the AI will just wirehead itself (assuming it gets intelligent enough to do so, of course).

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-27 Thread BillK
On Wed, Aug 27, 2008 at 8:43 PM, Abram Demski wrote: snip By the way, where does this term wireheading come from? I assume from context that it simply means self-stimulation. Science Fiction novels. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wirehead In Larry Niven's Known Space stories, a wirehead is

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-27 Thread Matt Mahoney
See also http://wireheading.com/ -- Matt Mahoney, [EMAIL PROTECTED] - Original Message From: BillK [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: agi@v2.listbox.com Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 4:50:56 PM Subject: Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-27 Thread Matt Mahoney
Mark Waser [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: All rational goal-seeking agents must have a mental state of maximum utility where any thought or perception would be unpleasant because it would result in a different state. I'd love to see you attempt to prove the above statement. What if there are

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-27 Thread Charles Hixson
Matt Mahoney wrote: An AGI will not design its goals. It is up to humans to define the goals of an AGI, so that it will do what we want it to do. Are you certain that this is the optimal approach? To me it seems more promising to design the motives, and to allow the AGI to design it's own

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-27 Thread Mark Waser
What if the utility of the state decreases the longer that you are in it (something that is *very* true of human beings)? If you are aware of the passage of time, then you are not staying in the same state. I have to laugh. So you agree that all your arguments don't apply to anything that

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-27 Thread Mark Waser
Hi, I think that I'm missing some of your points . . . . Whatever good is, it cannot be something directly observable, or the AI will just wirehead itself (assuming it gets intelligent enough to do so, of course). I don't understand this unless you mean by directly observable that the

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-27 Thread Matt Mahoney
Mark Waser [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: What if the utility of the state decreases the longer that you are in it (something that is *very* true of human beings)? If you are aware of the passage of time, then you are not staying in the same state. I have to laugh. So you agree that all your

Re: AGI goals (was Re: Information theoretic approaches to AGI (was Re: [agi] The Necessity of Embodiment))

2008-08-27 Thread Matt Mahoney
Goals and motives are the same thing, in the sense that I mean them. We want the AGI to want to do what we want it to do. Failure is an extreme danger, but it's not only failure to design safely that's a danger. Failure to design a successful AGI at all could be nearly as great a danger.