On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 8:06 PM, Ben Goertzel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Personally, I have swung between extremes of excessive self-doubt > and excessive self-confidence many times ... but one way or another, > I've kept pushing ahead hard with the work, regardless of the emotional > fluctuations my limbic system may cook up... > > -- Ben G
There is a difference between 'self-doubt' and the capability to criticize your own theories. To be able to criticize your own theories, (or those theories you are arguing for) you only have to be able to examine them from a number of different vantages - including those that may be critical. I agree that it is unlikely that anyone is completely unable to examine his own theories from different perspectives and that is why I believe this capability is a fundamental method of intelligence. On the other hand, I believe that people who are either overly defensive or who just cannot appreciate the possibility that some of their theories (or criticisms) may not be as sound and extensive as they believe them still utilize this multiple vantage perspective (that I believe is innate) by continually refocusing their attention onto those manifestations of their theories that they believe they have found. So, at worse, a closed minded person can spend years and years honing an argument that may have little beneficial effect on his life or on his world, but he does so by using the same tools that more successful people seem to use. This opinion can be reduced to the point to make it seem too obvious to bother with. But I believe that it has important implications for advanced AI research. This process of reexamining a system of theories, and then focusing on particular aspects of those theories, can be very effective but it can also produce a great deal of ineptness just as easily. That is why empirical methods are so important. But then you run into the problem that there is a roughly inverse relationship between the establishment of feasible objectives that can be used to measure success in developing AGI and the range of generality that can be established by their use. Jim Bromer ------------------------------------------- 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=117534816-b15a34 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
