Hi all, Please correct and edit this as appropriate:
The AGI hypothesis is that an infinitely intelligent (machine) will do VERY well in our world. We survive and thrive through our social and economic interactions, which most here seem to think are less important than raw intelligence. I have discussed in the past that there may be an optimal intelligence, beyond which a human or machine would be seen as being too dangerous to deal with, just as some people are seen as being too dangerous to deal with - not so much because of the AGI-specific concerns, but rather just the usual mundane social competition for goods, women, status, etc. - why play with someone who always wins? My dad used to frequently play checkers with me - and he always won. At about 12 years old I eventually tired of this, so I read three books on checker strategy, and he never won another game. After a few more games, he refused to play me any more. To examine an edge of this effect, I was once part of a small company that was negotiating with Microsoft to develop one of their products. After seeing the way Microsoft rose to the top, I suspected that we would be ripped off, so I insisted on certain provisions in the contract that would have been no problem had Microsoft not intended a ripoff. Microsoft accepted some of the provisions but refused others. The rest of the company accepted, and I walked. After a long and expensive development effort Microsoft ripped them off just as I had expected, only Microsoft got entangled in one of my provisions that they had caved on, which they eventually settled for a bunch of money - but not enough to pay for the development effort. Perhaps there is an "optimizing" process going on here, e.g. a "shark" (like Microsoft in the above example) could adjust their aggressiveness to optimize their return, because various people have various thresholds of "refusal to play", just like my threshold was lower than that of the rest of the small company, who saw the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, without seeing the leprechaun who was there waiting to grab it first. Steve Balmer probably has a good answer to this question regarding optimization, but I doubt that he would ever choose to share it. So, just what is the distinction between AGI and an Alien? Is there any difference beyond us having built one, while the other one just landed here? Would an AGI fare any better than an Alien in our society? If so, then why? Consider the following video. I don't think such a thing could ever happen, mostly because everyone would be EXPECTING such a thing to happen: Nonetheless, there would doubtless be many willing victims, like the small company discussed above. http://www.hulu.com/watch/440883 Would YOU trust an AGI to be acting in YOUR best interests, any more than you might trust an Alien? So, why work on something that apparently lacks a success path? Steve ------------------------------------------- AGI Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/21088071-f452e424 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=21088071&id_secret=21088071-58d57657 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
