[ExI] AI Motivation revisited

[Richard Loosemore]

Eugen Leitl wrote:
> On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 02:49:18PM -0400, Richard Loosemore wrote:
>
>   
>> Well, all I can say that is "definite" is that the above statement is  
>> definitely garbage.  ;-)
>>     
>
> It would help if you realize that there are juste a few GBytes
> of memory with some 10 GByte/s bandwidth in a current PC.
> This only applies to streaming, random access is much, much
> worse. Graphics accelerators only add an order of magnitude.
>
>   
>> Until you understand what is involved in the mechanisms of intelligence,  
>>     
>
> I undestand enough of neuroscience to know that it currently
> takes the whole Earth's hardware to match what the space
> between your ears does.
>   

No, that is not true, because everything depends on the relevant 
FUNCTIONAL level at which the emulation has to take place (a point that 
I made, IIRC, on this list in the last few months).

Are you duplicating the structure of the human brain at the quark level, 
because you reckon the quark level to be the relevant functional level?  
Why not?

You assumed ...... what? ..... that it had to be duplicated with 
accuracy down to the neuron level?  Synapse level?  Molecular level?  On 
what basis would each of these choices be made (i.e., what forces us to 
assume that proper functionality requires that level of detail)?

The point is that there are choices here.  My own work tends to indicate 
that something around the cortical column level of functionality would 
be sufficient for most of the processing.  Now, if that were true then 
an AGI could very well be built using something within an order of 
magnitude of a current PC.

I don't think anyone pays sufficient atention to this little issue.  
Does anyone reading this post truly realize that the implication is that 
if cortical columns are the relevant functional level, and if someone 
figured out what the functionality is, that means someone could build an 
AGI that would fit in (probably) a single server rack, and do so by the 
end of the year...? 



Richard Loosemore

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