Ben, People need a clear goal for your activity, so that they can decide whether it's worth pursuing even if only from the sidelines. It's a fundamental need for every activity we engage in... to answer: "what's the point?" And it's also a fundamental tendency when formulating goals is difficult, to plunge in and avoid any goalsetting - just start writing the essay. But that way lies confusion - things rarely sort themselves out.
It's also important for the person conducting the activity to have a stated goal and philsoophy, even if imperfect - that way when you get stuck, as is inevitable,it's much easier to change the goal/ philosophy and change direction. I don't know so much about creative programmers, but I do know that most of the best artists, contrary to popular misconception, have had a highly developed intellectual philosophy of what they're doing. If you know your rules, it's easier to change them. ----- Original Message ----- From: Benjamin Goertzel To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 4:44 PM Subject: Re: [agi] The University of Phoenix Test [was: Why do you think your AGI design will work?] I think that figuring out a good working definition of general intelligence and demonstratable intermediate steps is the single most important missing piece of the endeavor. What perplexes me is why so many people seem to hold this opinion ;-) Of course, demonstrable intermediate steps are great, but why would you consider that a prerequisite? What is the demonstrable intermediate step to making an airplane? Or an explosive device? You can't define any such intermediate steps that will robustly apply to any plausible approach... Ben g ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?&; ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Internal Virus Database is out-of-date. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.463 / Virus Database: 0.0.0/0 - Release Date: <unknown> 00:00 ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=231415&user_secret=fabd7936
