[extropy-chat] Not necessary smarter, just faster?

[Eugen Leitl]

On Wed, May 10, 2006 at 06:37:08PM -0400, Anne-Marie Taylor wrote:
> Richard Loosemore from the sl4 list posted:
>   >For example: suppose we could build minds that simply worked at a 
>   >million times the speed of our own (not necessary smarter, just faster). 
>   >That would mean that one of these minds could achieve everything that 
>   >Einstein did in his entire career in about 10 minutes. A billion times faster machine 
>   >could do all of that in half a minute. 

So if you run a dog on fast-forward long enough you'd get general relativity
out if it? Sorry, doesn't work that way.  
    
>   Even if a super computer mind could remember every last detail, equation, word or 
>   scenerio at a million times the speed of our own, how would it be able to come up 
>   with Einstein theories?

Just the same way Einstein did. 
    
>   I imagine it would be educated but could it be creative, if the only thing it could do is 
>   think faster?  

What do you think being creative is? Is a computer beating a grandmaster in chess
being creative? How can you tell it isn't? Is the tissue in your brain being
creative right now? Glia, pieces of dendritic tree? Ion channels? Protein domains?
Water vibration modes? Quarks? 
    
>   If it is not necessary for it to be smarter then wouldn't it be like putting 
>   wikipedia in someones mind?

You can compensate a lot by hard work. Up to a point. Vide supra: the eternal
canine on fast-forward won't produce much than lots of happy barking, virtually
gnawn bones, and tail-chasing.
    
>   Sorry I just don't understand the "not 
> necessary smarter, just faster".
>    
>   Either I don't understand or i'm missing something.
>   Any clarification would be helpful.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
______________________________________________________________
ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820            http://www.ativel.com
8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A  7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 191 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20060511/d93a9414/attachment.bin>