Ben,

The outlined argument appears to make one equivocation which could be
removed:

The hardness versus softness of the takeoff then has to do with the amount
> of time needed to carry out this process of “exploring slight variations.” 
> This
> leads to the introduction of a second condition. If one’s region of
> mindspace obeys the first condition laid out above, and also consists of AGI
> systems for which adding more hardware tends to accelerate system speed
> significantly, without impairing intelligence, then it follows that one can
> make the takeoff hard by simply adding more hardware.
>

It isn't necessarily the case that adding more hardware increases the rate
of self-improvement significantly, just because it improves overall
intelligence. This could be stated as an additional assumption: that better
general intelligence automatically means better self-improvement skill. (A
view contrary to this might claim that no matter how much intelligence you
have in other areas, you are always fundamentally limited in your ability to
self-improve-- perhaps arguing that smarter minds are more complicated and
difficult to understand, so that more intelligence doesn't necessarily mean
more self-improvement capability... it might even make it harder to
self-improve!)

Also a note about the assumption which *is* stated... one argument against
the idea that more hardware -> more intelligence might be that data is the
fundamental limiting variable, after some particular amount of hardware has
been obtained. (This has similarities to Matt's arguments.) The question is
then whether the amount of data available is enough for hard takeoff, which
is an interesting question in itself!

--Abram

On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 12:04 AM, Ben Goertzel <[email protected]> wrote:
> The Hard Takeoff Hypothesis (new blog post by me)
>
>
http://multiverseaccordingtoben.blogspot.com/2011/01/hard-takeoff-hypothesis.html
>
> ... what kind of AGI system could enable a hard takeoff? OpenCog?
>
> --
> Ben Goertzel, PhD
> CEO, Novamente LLC and Biomind LLC
> CTO, Genescient Corp
> Chairman, Humanity+
> Adjunct Professor of Cognitive Science, Xiamen University, China
> Advisor, Singularity University and Singularity Institute
> [email protected]
>
> "My humanity is a constant self-overcoming" -- Friedrich Nietzsche
>



-- 
Abram Demski
http://lo-tho.blogspot.com/
http://groups.google.com/group/one-logic



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