[extropy-chat] In the Long Run, How Much Does Intelligence Dominate Space?

[Robin Hanson]

At 02:36 PM 7/4/2006, Lee Corbin wrote:
>just exactly how much can---or will, or
>should we expect---superhuman *intelligence* to completely
>dominate and completely control some finite volume of space?
>Eugen takes the ecosystem view, and adduces the historical
>successes of free markets and other "out of control" systems.
>Russell and I take the "good housekeeping" view, if I might
>phrase it that way, that a powerful intelligence keeps her
>area as clean as a Dutch housewife does hers. ... for some
>radius R (limited by light speed) an intelligence is really a single-
>willed entity capable of laying down complete governing rules,
>conventions and laws regarding its own space.

I would ask the question as:  what kinds of choices are coordinated
over what scales?  An "intelligence" over some region is not aware
of everything going on in that region, but for some choices made in
that region coordination is important enough and feasible enough
that the intelligence is conscious of those choices and attempts to
coordinate them with each other and with other closely relevant
choices.

To address this question, we want to identify for various candidate
choices the relevant values to coordination, and the costs of
coordination.  We might then expect coordination only when the
value of coordination exceeds its costs.

Humans on Earth attempt to coordinate some choices at the scale
of the Earth, such as through the United Nations.   At the other
extreme, parts of my mind make many choices that they do not
coordinate much with other parts of my mind, and which I am not
conscious of.



Robin Hanson  rhanson at gmu.edu  http://hanson.gmu.edu
Associate Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326  FAX: 703-993-2323