--- On Thu, 9/18/08, Trent Waddington <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 7:54 AM, Matt Mahoney > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Perhaps there are some applications I haven't > thought of? > > Bahahaha.. Gee, ya think? So perhaps you could name some applications of AGI that don't fall into the categories of (1) doing work or (2) augmenting your brain? A third one occurred to me: launching a self improving or evolving AGI to consume all available resources, i.e. an intelligent worm or self replicating nanobots. This really isn't a useful application, but I'm sure somebody, somewhere, might think it would be really cool to see if it would launch a singularity and/or wipe out all DNA based life. Oh, I'm sure the first person to try it would take precautions like inserting a self destruct mechanism that activates after some number of replications. (The 1988 Morris worm had software intended to slow its spread, but it had a bug). Or maybe they will be like the scientists who believed that the idea of a chain reaction in U-235 was preposterous... (Thankfully, the scientists who actually built the first atomic pile took some precautions, such as standing by with an axe to cut a rope suspending a cadmium control rod in case things got out of hand. They got lucky because of an unanticipated phenomena in which a small number of nuclei had delayed fission, which made the chain reaction much easier to control). -- Matt Mahoney, [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=114414975-3c8e69 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
