[ExI] Limiting factor to the Intelligence Singularity?

[Adrian Tymes]

On Sat, Dec 23, 2023 at 8:13 AM Kelly Anderson via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> Einstein proposed that nothing could achieve the speed of light
> because it gained mass as it got closer to that speed.
>
> I wonder if something similar might affect intellectual progress.
> Though there is no c there, so it might not hold together entirely.
> Hang with this for a second though, as there is a counter exponential
> at play.
>
> As we grope into the future, there is a trend away from the single
> brilliant inventor. Edison had a whole lab of people, some of whom
> were clearly smarter than he. Eli Whitney pretty much invented the
> cotton gin by himself relying on only a few simple precedent ideas. By
> the time we get to super colliders, fusion reactors and rockets, you
> need a village of scientists and engineers to make progress.
>

That is only a function of how big the design is.  It is possible for one
person to design all the components, but it is infeasible for one person to
build something that large.  The light bulb was a bit of an exception,
though
https://www.statista.com/chart/10567/the-cost-of-light-through-the-ages/
shows that in 1880 - after Edison's team's famous labor - artificial light
still cost over 10,000 times what it does today,after accounting for
inflation.

That said, as it is said, we live in a society.  Eli Whitney did not invent
mining, blacksmithing, or the other crafts needed to make the parts he
assembled.  Albert Einstein did not invent physics, mathematics, or writing
- not even the German or English languages.  Those who come up with new
things, start from other contributions of those who have gone before them.
The Internet allows dramatically better access to this - if it has been
written up and posted where one can get at it, if one is skilled enough to
find it, and if one is of a mindset to do so:even today's youth who grew up
online too often do not think to search for answers online when they have
questions they find difficult.
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