[ExI] Did Hugo de Garis leave the field?

[Richard Loosemore]

Ben Zaiboc wrote:
> I was disappointed to read this:
> 
> "Ask yourself how it’s possible for a creature of a given
> intelligence level to be able to design a creature of greater
> intelligence. Designing a creature of superior intelligence requires
> a level of intelligence that the designer simply does not have.
> Therefore, it is logically impossible to use the traditional
> blueprint-design approach to create a creature of superior
> intelligence"
> 
> 
> So it's 'logically impossible', because designing a creature of
> superior intelligence requires a level of intelligence that the
> designer simply does not have??
> 
> Answering the question with a simple "No", with no actual reason
> given, other than "because it's impossible", is not acceptable.  He's
> saying "just because".
> 
> The best you can say is "I don't know".  There is absolutely no proof
> that a given intelligence can't design a superior one.  I expect most
> of the people reading this could think of at least one way of
> increasing their own intelligence, if we only had the tools.  I can
> think of 3 without even trying, and I'm far from very bright.
> 
> The other disturbing thing about the article is the assumption that
> if you don't understand every detail about how something works, you
> shouldn't use it.  Not to mention the implicit assumption that just
> because you use an evolutionary algorithm to design something, it's
> *inherently* non-understandable.

I agree completely.  I can think of many ways to boost the intelligence 
beyond human level, so Hugo's comment is outright silly.


Richard Loosemore