I spent a while back in the 90s trying to make AGI and alife converge, before establishing to my satisfaction the approach is a dead end: we will never have anywhere near enough computing power to make alife evolve significant intelligence (the only known success took 4 billion years on a planetary sized nanocomputer network, after all), even if we could set up just the right selection pressures, which we can't.
On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 4:23 AM, Linas Vepstas <[email protected]> wrote: > I saw the following post from Antonio Alberti, on the linked-in > discussion group: > >>ALife and AGI >> >>Dear group participants. >> >>The relation among AGI and ALife greatly interests me. However, too few >>recent works try to relate them. For exemple, many papers presented in AGI-09 >>(http://agi-conf.org/2009/) are about program learning algorithms (combining >>evolutionary learning and analytical learning). In AGI 2010, virtual pets >>have been presented by Ben Goertzel and are also another topic of this forum. >>There are other approaches in AGI that uses some digital evolutionary >>approach for AGI. For me it is a clear clue that both are related in some >>instance. >> >> >>By ALife I mean the life-as-it-could-be approach (not simulate, but to use >>digital environment to evolve digital organisms using digital evolution >>(faster than Natural one - see >>http://www.hplusmagazine.com/articles/science/stephen-hawking-%E2%80%9Chumans-have-entered-new-stage-evolution%E2%80%9D). >> >>So, I would like to propose some discussion topics regarding ALIfe and AGI: >> >>1) What is the role of Digital Evolution (and ALife) in the AGI context? >> >>2) Is it possible that some aspects of AGI could self-emerge from the digital >>evolution of intelligent autonomous agents? >> >>3) Is there any research group trying to converge both approaches? >> >>Best Regards, > > and my reply was below: > > For your question 3), I have no idea. For question 1) I can't say I've > ever heard of anyone talk about this. For question 2), I imagine the > answer is yes, although the boundaries between "what's Alife" and > "what's program learning" (for example) may be blurry. > > So, imagine, for example, a population of many different species of > "neurons" (or should I call them automata? or maybe I should call them > "virtual ants"?) Most of the individuals have only a few "friends" (a > narrow social circle) -- the "friendship" relationship can be viewed > as an "axon-dendrite" connection -- these friendships are semi-stable; > they evolve over time, and the type & quality of information exchanged > in a friendship also varies. Is a social network of friends able to > solve complex problems? The answer is seemingly yes, if the > individuals are digital models of neurons. (To carry analogy further: > different species of individuals would be analogous to different types > of neurons e.g. purkinje cells vs pyramid cells vs granular vs. motor > neurons. Individuals from one species may tend to be very gregarious, > while those from other species might be generally xenophobic. etc.) > > I have no clue if anyone has ever explored genetic algorithms or > related alife algos, factored together with the individuals being > involved in a social network (with actual information exchange between > friends). No clue as to how natural/artificial selection should work. > Do anti-social individuals have a possibly redeeming role w.r.t. the > organism as a whole? Do selection pressures on individuals (weak > individuals are cullled) destroy social networks? Do such networks > automatically evolve altruism, because a working social network with > weak, altruistically-supported individuals is better than a shredded, > dysfunctional social network consisting of only strong individuals? > Dunno. Seems like there could be many many interesting questions. > > I'd be curious about the answers to Antonio's questions ... > > --linas > > > ------------------------------------------- > 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/?&; > Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com > ------------------------------------------- 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=8660244-6e7fb59c Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
