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

[ilsa]

What can we understand that's beyond the confines of our ability to
understand what the equipment we were given?
ilsa

Ilsa Bartlett
Institute for Rewiring the System
http://ilsabartlett.wordpress.com
http://www.google.com/profiles/ilsa.bartlett
www.hotlux.com/angel <http://www.hotlux.com/angel.htm>

"Don't ever get so big or important that you can not hear and listen to
every other person."
-John Coltrane

On Tue, Oct 28, 2025, 1:15 PM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> 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> <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
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20251028/61d2d376/attachment.htm>