A few
thoughts...
If an
intelligent device is to be planned and built according to
a modular architecture, it would be appropriate to
determine what the “storage” of the intelligence looks
like. What will the device contain that makes it
intelligent? Are these “blocks” of intelligence
measurable? Can this intelligence be wired into the unit
easily?
Part of the
reason for looking at this essence of intelligence is to
better see what needs to surround the intelligence to have
a complete system. In my thinking (over the past few
years,) I've come to favor a way of looking at
intelligence that can easily lead to a fairly complete
“generally” intelligent device.
Intelligence
Stuff
The stuff that goes into
intelligence is knowledge, but knowledge alone isn't
enough. For knowledge to contribute to intelligence, it
has to be in a “package” consisting of several pieces of knowledge,
and physical
accessories, which all relate to one another in a
specific way. To refer to this package, I call it “opportunity.”
People have a common understanding of
opportunity, and it fits nicely into the conversation
about intelligence. Consider that an opportunity is
related to a benefit, and one's situation. This implies that
we can “choose” an opportunity when it is likely to
bring benefit. The idea being that we make a good
“choice” given the situation – doing the intelligent
thing.
You may object to giving
opportunity a “high status” because awareness of an opportunity doesn't give us that opportunity. And I would be
the first to agree. But, I would say that one only has real opportunity
when he can execute a recipe that will bring
benefit. In other words, you only have opportunity if
you have the whole package, and the opportunity package
(the unit of intelligence) includes being able to take
action that
causes changes (benefits) in the real world. This taking action is what
makes intelligence much more than intellectual exercise.
In the view from 50,000 feet,
the mature intelligent device has hundreds of
opportunity to choose from in a given moment. It's
overall “score” on the intelligence scale is determined
by both it's quantity of opportunity and the quality of
each opportunity. Cloning intelligence would
mean giving the less mature unit opportunities that it
can add to it's store of opportunity.
There is much more that can
be said about architecture centered around opportunity.
I would be happy to engage in a discussion if anyone is
interested.
Stan
