[extropy-chat] Proof that a paperclip maximizer cannot be a general intelligence

Mike Lorrey mlorrey at yahoo.com
Thu Aug 18 16:33:50 UTC 2005


No. If one replies that the statement is false, one is basing that
statement on information outside of the statement, since the two
clauses of the statement only give two alternatives. Your statement is
merely set up as an 'or' statement that functions as an 'and'
statement, by making both clauses 'not' conditionals to ascertain a
true response for each, and dependent on each other to verify a true
response. It is a basic logic gate. If one says 'false', one either
refuses to accept the validity of one of the two conditional clauses,
and/or is operating on information outside the statement, presuming one
understands what a paperclip maximizer is...

--- Marc Geddes <marc_geddes at yahoo.co.nz> wrote:

> Is the following sentence ‘True’ or ‘False’?
> 
> “Either I did not just carry out the goal of
> understanding this sentence or the goal ‘Maximize
> paperclips’ is not the goal with the highest utility.
> 
> Suppose you asked the paperclip maximizer whether it
> thought that the sentence was ‘True’ or “False’.  To
> do this the system would have to have understood the
> sentence.  So it would have to have carried out the
> goal of understanding it.
> 
> But the sentence said that IF one just carried out the
> goal of understanding it, the goal ‘Maximize
> paperclips is not the goal with the highest utility’. 
> Therefore, a ‘True’ 
> answer would mean that the system agrees that
> ‘Maximize paperclips is not the goal with the highest
> utility’.  But this would contradict the notion that
> the system is a paperclip maximizer.  Therefore the
> system cannot say ‘True’
> 
> Is the sentence actually meaningful though?  Yes. 
> 
> Tarksi’s resolution of logical paradoxes does not
> apply here, because both clauses in the sentence are
> referring to things on the same logical level: namely
> *carrying out goals*.
> 
> Since the sentence is meaningful and since a real
> general intelligence CAN see that the statement is
> true, this proves that a paperclip maximizer cannot be
> a true general intelligence.
> 
> 
> ---
> 
> Please vist my website:
> http://www.riemannai.org
> 
> Science, Sci-Fi and Philosophy
> 
> ---
> 
> THE BRAIN is wider than the sky,  
>   For, put them side by side,  
> The one the other will include  
>   With ease, and you beside. 
> 
> -Emily Dickinson
> 
> 'The brain is wider than the sky'
> http://www.bartleby.com/113/1126.html
> 
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Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
Founder, Constitution Park Foundation:
http://constitutionpark.blogspot.com
Personal/political blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com


		
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