[ExI] jbrains again, was: RE: Early Archives... Re: Yudkowsky ‘Humanity’s remaining timeline? It looks more like five years than 50’

Thu Feb 22 17:30:27 UTC 2024

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of Keith Henson via extropy-chat
...

>...I do.  About 20 years ago I was bugged by being tagged as the originator of the Jupiter brain.  I found the original post on a floppy and it was from Perry Metzger. I responded by throwing cold water on the idea due to the speed of light making such a brain slower than humans.  Didn't help, still got associated with the silly idea...

Keith I would gladly accept credit for the JBrain idea.  The speed of light making such a brain slower than humans is to me mostly irrelevant for two reasons.  A JBrain (and an MBrain) would not necessarily function as a single brain but rather more analogous to a community, where the unit analogous to a single brain might be restricted to a trillion nodes which are all located within a few milliseconds of each other.  The latency would still be longer than a human brain, but what is the hurry?  A JBrain (or an MBrain) wouldn't be subject to our cruel 80 to 100 year span.  If they are slower and it takes 30 years to play a leisurely chess game, well OK then, that isn't a show-stopper.  They have no lunch date or doctor appointment to worry about.

Although I will never claim to be the inventor of the JBrain, I will cheerfully claim to be the guy who recognized the advantage of the JBrain over the MBrain: it gives us a solution to the nagging thermal problem.  A JBrain is less capable, but far less likely to overheat.  After all these years, I still think Robert was wrong on that: there is no magic advanced tech solution to the overheating MBrain problem.  I think that problem is inherent, but wouldn't be difficult to solve for a JBrain.  Our friend the good old Stefan-Boltzmann law will take care of us there, without even active heat control.  I predict that in the long run, the JBrain idea will come back into fashion before the MBrain.

Fun aside for you and all of us Tabby's Star fans: it is clear enough that the periodic dimming isn't an MBrain, but it might be a bunch of JBrains, and that would explain why they are clumpy: so they can be closer together, kinda vaguely analogous why there are more big cities in California than there are in Wyoming: latency between JBrains is factor.

Furthermore on that topic... I can easily imagine a group of JBrains figuring out a solution to the thermal problem on MBrains, if such a solution exists.  If it does, it requires a brain way smarter than mine, or use some kind of technology I don't know.

Hey Keith, next time it comes up and someone accuses you of being the JBrain inventor, just say no, my goofball friend spike66 is the father of that silly-ass notion.  {8^D  I will cheerfully accept credit for that.  And will in all honesty and false modesty credit Anders Sandberg with most of that idea.

spike

> How to attach it to a modern system? (Not to mention, is bit-rot still 
> "a thing"?)
>
> We're always going on here about "loss" when someone dies.  When a 
> list (or big part of it) dies, that can be a major loss too...  Robert 
> Bradbury, Sasha, Zero, Damein, Barbara, Eugene, Waldemar, Greg, Mike, 
> Harvey .......... and what ever happened to EvMick?

I would put the archive up, but it is close to useless.  I don't know why, but a search does not work on it.

I guess it would take about $70k of labor to make it useful.

Keith

> Regards,
> MB
>
> On Thu, February 22, 2024 10:54, Keith Henson via extropy-chat wrote:
> > The only person who made noise about list privacy in those days was 
> > Perry Metzger and I have email from him asking that the list be made 
> > public.
> >
> >
> > Keith
> >
> > On Thu, Feb 22, 2024 at 7:41 AM Max More via extropy-chat 
> > <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
> >>
> >>  I have a lot of the early archives on floppy disks – old folks 
> >> here might recall those non-floppy floppies. (A brief era following 
> >> stone
> >> tablets.) I think I have maybe everything from 1993-94. Given the 
> >> private nature of the early list, I'm not sure about sharing these 
> >> with those who weren't on the list.
> >>
> >> --Max
> >> ________________________________
> >> From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> on 
> >> behalf of MB via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> >> Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2024 8:23 AM
> >> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> >> Cc: MB <mbb386 at main.nc.us>
> >> Subject: [ExI] Early Archives... Re: Yudkowsky ‘Humanity’s 
> >> remaining timeline? It looks more like five years than 50’
> >>
> >> Keith,
> >>
> >> It would be a plus to share those archives with someone on the list
> >> (*not*
> >> me!) - like John Klos, or spike or ExIMod, someone who will 
> >> preserve them besides you.  Just something to consider.  :)
> >>
> >> Be Well!
> >> Regards,
> >> MB
> >>
> >> On Tue, February 20, 2024 20:50, Keith Henson via extropy-chat wrote:
> >>
> >> > PS.  I have the early archives of Extropy Chat, but they are had 
> >> > to access.
> >> >
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