<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">
On Apr 23, 2015, at 11:41 PM, Rafal Smigrodzki <<a href="mailto:rafal.smigrodzki@gmail.com" class="">rafal.smigrodzki@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br class="">
<div>
<blockquote type="cite" class="">
<div class="">
<div dir="ltr" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;" class="">
<div class="gmail_extra">
<div class="gmail_quote">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div style="word-wrap: break-word;" class="">
<div class="">
<blockquote type="cite" class="">
<div class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div class="gmail_extra">
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div class="">I have the impression that general intelligence in a fitness-maximizing self-replicator creates its own niche and all such replicators inhabit it. That is to say, any group of interbreeding fitness-maximizing replicators with general intelligence
is a direct competitor of all other such groups that are reproductively separate from it.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
But why is there only one niche in this case? The biological world seems to have a vast number of niches, and modern economies also seem to have a great many niches. Why is this illusory? </div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">### As noted, non-intelligent species are specialized, so multiple niches exist. The notion of a niche in human economies is a bit different from the ecological niche - human specializations are less dependent on genetic differences. ... A individual
lawyer could have been a doctor or a plumber but for the relative demand and supply of various types of labor. This is not to deny that genetically determined individual human skills have an impact on chosen occupations, especially on fringes of the distribution
that may require unusual levels of intelligence or other characteristics - however, humans overall tend be able to better substitute for each other, thanks to general intelligence, than non-intelligent replicators.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<br class="">
</div>
<div>The first species to pioneer a new big innovation may quickly fill a large environment, and it may seem to be “general” with respect to that new environment. But with time its descendants may fragment into many species as different ones specialize in different
parts of the niche. Humans have pioneered some big innovations, and no other known animal comes close for now, but there’s no reason that the descendants of humans can’t fragment into many versions that specialize in different areas. If humans retained their
methods of reproduction for a long time, that is probably would would happen. The main reason for doubt is big upcoming changes in how mind and body designs are encoded and changed. </div>
<br class="">
<div apple-content-edited="true" class=""><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px;">
<div class="">
<div style="font-size: 12px; " class="">Robin Hanson <a href="http://hanson.gmu.edu" class="">http://hanson.gmu.edu</a><br class="">
Res. Assoc., Future of Humanity Inst., Oxford Univ.<br class="">
Assoc. Professor, George Mason University</div>
<div style="font-size: 12px; " class="">Chief Scientist, Consensus Point<br class="">
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030<br class="">
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323</div>
</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
</span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
</div>
<br class="">
</body>
</html>