Linas Vepstas wrote:
Richard wrote:
.... Though it is unlikely to do so, because collaborative
open-source projects are best suited >to situations in which the
fundamental ideas behind the design has been solved.
Just having a large gang of programmers on an open-source project
does not address Pei's >point about AGI being the "most complicated
problem in the history of science".
Yes, but a large gang of open source programmers can help build
the infrastructure. Curing the Manhattan project, it may have been
Feynmann and von Neumann and Teller and Oppenheimer doing
all the thinking, but it sure wasn't them that built 42 acres of uranium
enrichment plants. This was done by large gangs.
I guess I agree with this point by itself (I could do with a large gang,
for example, to build SAFAIRE) but when I made the remarks I was
thinking about solving the actual core problem of designing the right
architecture.
So for example, I think Pei is correct to point out that the basic
solution is going to come from one person's idea, but that if we have a
situation in which nobody has yet had that idea, then (and only then)
the strategy of getting a large gang together would not help.
Now, Ben thinks that he does have the correct solution and is ready for
the gang. I think the same about my solution, and perhaps Pei Wang and
Peter Voss and Hugo de Garis all have the same opinion about their own
work .... in other words, perhaps they all believe that all they need
right now is a large enough gang. But if we were all wrong, then our
gangs would only serve to prove (eventually!) that we were wrong. I
doubt that the open-source collective would be where the solution would
come from.
So, no disagreement that a big gang is beneficial, but....
Richard Loosemore
P.S. Now I am deep trouble because I just said that a big open source
collective could help me build SAFAIRE, and Stephen Reed is going to ask
me any minute now why I don't simply get me a big open-source gang.... ;-)
-------------------------------------------
agi
Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now
RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/
Modify Your Subscription:
http://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=101455710-f059c4
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
