Ah the collective brain is saying something else as well - wh. is another
reason why I was hoping to get a discussion. It's exemplified in the example
of the mouse.
Actually, Ridley is saying, the complete knowledge to build a mouse does not
reside in any individual brain, or indeed by extension in any group of
individual brains. That complete knowledge only effectively comes into
being when you get all those brains along with all their relevant
technologies and libraries, working together.
Hence one talks of a collective brain, which is of course a (useful)
fiction. There is no such brain and nor is there any complete locatable
store of knowledge to perform the great majority of our activities. They are
the result of societies of individuals working together.
And that - although no doubt I'm not expressing it well at all - is a rather
magical idea and magical reality.
{Note this is something different from but loosely related to the crude,
rather atavistic idea beloved by AGI-ers that the internet will somehow
magically come alive and acquire an individual brain of its own]
-------------------------------------------
agi
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