[ExI] Kelly's future

[Kelly Anderson]

On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 3:33 PM, Samantha Atkins <sjatkins at mac.com> wrote:
> On 05/26/2011 01:49 PM, Kelly Anderson wrote:
>>
>> My underlying assumption here is that AGIs of the future will
>> (initially at least) be based upon the human intelligence model, and
>> will, in fact, be silicon based human brain emulators.
>
> I think this is much much harder to do than a more direct approach to the
> parts of intelligence we are after.  It seems as doubtful as achieving
> heavier than air flight by building a bird emulator.
>
> One problem in a brain emulator that is pretty critical is how to separate
> all those things laid down by evolution that you do not want, or at least
> want in a more optimal form, from those you do want.  One problem is that
> currently it would take a 4GW power plant just to run a cat brain partial
> emulation.  We need some device breakthroughs like perhaps memristors.

Hi Samantha,

  When I say "brain emulation", what I mean in detail is emulation of
the human model, and not necessarily the human cellular
implementation. Some organelles of the brain may be simulated in a
much more efficient manner than nature has implemented them. For
example, some of the organelles in the auditory and visual pathways
have already been emulated with great precision, without using
billions of emulated cells to do so.

  As long as you stick with the human model, you sort of know what
you're dealing with, and maybe we can avoid some of the risks that are
inherent in AGI. We more or less know what it takes to produce good
people, and we should be able to avoid that in creating the AGIs, I
hope.

  So while it would take a 4GW power plant to run a cat emulation on
the cellular level, it likely would not be so bad if we were emulating
the behavior of organelles rather than cells.

-Kelly