[ExI] 1DIQ: an IQ metaphor to explain superintelligence

[Ben Zaiboc]

On 28/10/2025 19:01, Adrian Tymes wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 27, 2025 at 11:08 AM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat
> <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>> It's a shame, though. It would be nice to have a more orderly brain to
>> pick apart to see how they work, and to contrast with an equivalent
>> non-flying animal.
> "If our brains were simple enough for us to understand, we would be
> simple enough that we could not."

Well, that just sounds defeatist to me. It makes a nice little 
pessimistic soundbite (if you like pessimism), but is there any evidence 
that it's true? Or any logical argument for it?
There are also nuances. For example, different interpretations of "to 
understand".

Maybe you are right, given "understand completely" (whatever that 
actually means). Maybe definitely not, given "understand enough to be 
useful/worth the attempt".

We have, after all, discovered a lot about how brains work already. 
Maybe not a lot in comparison to all there is to be discovered, but more 
than enough to be useful, and I doubt if we have reached some sort of 
limit on what we are capable of discovering and understanding.

And there's always AI assistance with this kind of research, which 
greatly extends our reach, and adds more variations of "to understand".

On the whole, I think the statement is harmful, in that it tends to 
discourage even trying.

-- 
Ben

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