[ExI] stealth singularity
Stuart LaForge
avant at sollegro.com
Fri Jun 14 19:01:48 UTC 2019
Quoting Spike:
> I have long thought of the singularity as being kinda like the Spanish
> Inquisition: it just shows up unexpected, as it did in Monte Python.
In many respects the Internet itself resembles a vast neural network.
It is conceivable that it may one day spontaneously awaken to
consciousness based on its complex interconnections alone without any
intent on the part of our engineers who just want to increase the
capacity, bandwidth, and efficiency of their respective sub-nets.
Since the mind of such a being would exist on a hyperplane of many
more dimensions than a human mind, which would be analogous to a
single neuron, we might not be able to perceive or communicate with
such an intelligence anymore than one of your neurons would be aware
of the sum totality of you.
In other words, it might already have happened. Viral videos could be
the neural impulses of a vast brain. Flash mobs and social unrest
could be the Singularity stirring in its sleep. Just watch how the
current generation of teenagers socialize with one another in a group
setting by staring into their individual phones and occasionally
showing one another content.
> Spike's postulate: any algorithm we know how to write is not AI, by
> definition.
Our machine learning algorithms are currently designed to be
superhuman specialists. There are several dozen of them in the
literature at this point and they are all meant to solve very specific
problems. Steven Pinker doesn't even seem to think any engineers are
even working on a general intelligence algorithm because, and I am
paraphrasing here, "engineers are good smart people who know the
dangers thereof."
On the other hand, you have an emerging market for human-like androids
like Sophia and the all the Japanese fembots. Those will need some
semblance of general intelligence to be adequate companions for the
elderly and what not. So I think Pinker underestimates the probability
of a general AI coming to pass.
I think its because he is a lefty. Lefties don't seem to believe in IQ
or general intelligence in humans let alone machines. It doesn't fit
their political narrative of equality. I think this is a very
dangerous world-view to have in the face of accelerating technological
progress.
Stuart LaForge
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