On Sat, May 23, 2020, 12:28 PM Stanley Nilsen <senil...@ghvalley.net> wrote:
> I've thought about the Godlike computer and decided it's beyond my pay > grade to figure it out. > > There are a couple of differences when you "believe" in a God entity. > 1. your view of yourself > It is humbling to think that we created with a purpose and hope. That > we may be simple creatures meant to engage this world and find deeper > meaning - that enriches us. We should realize that "greatness" in men (and > women) is far from great in the overall scheme of things. > Your purpose in life is to propagate your genes, the same as every other animal, plant, bacteria, and virus. Evolution endowed us with large brains that set artificial goals and feel good about achieving them. It's actually a clever learning algorithm. 2. your relationship with the Godlike computer. > Seeing ourselves as simple elements given life, we can be thankful and > grateful when things turn out well. And when they aren't so well, we > realize our view and understanding are not adequate to get the full picture. > I don't believe in godlike simulations that answer prayers. > > About "free will" - > Arguments about free will are mostly about words - what is it to be > free and what is it to have a will - I don't intend to address that - leave > it to the philosophers - unless it becomes a design issue with AGI. > By free will, I mean what it feels like to make decisions. The feelings train us to believe that our actions are somehow distinguishable from the output of a deterministic neural network. But along those lines, what if the human brain is so simple that even a > child can understand it? What if the words we have used for hundreds of > years are adequate to talk about the brain and allow people to "program" > their brain? It slightly shifts the responsibility for our life outcomes > from "chance" to self. > If brains were simple, we would have solved AGI by now. We can't program a robot spider to weave webs. Human brains are a little more complex than spider brains. ------------------------------------------ Artificial General Intelligence List: AGI Permalink: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/Tc32c76a0c85e2ca9-M128994d8455c5897a6dd09f9 Delivery options: https://agi.topicbox.com/groups/agi/subscription
