[ExI] unconscious

[Anders Sandberg]

Mike Dougherty <msd001 at gmail.com> , 23/7/2014 10:55 PM:
On Wed, Jul 23, 2014 at 6:25 AM, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote: 
> So I think making the unconscious conscious is not the way to higher 
> intelligence. Quite the opposite. We might want more layers! 
 
I wonder if this principle also speaks to the hive-mind of galactic 
superbrains when people assume that lightspeed communication somehow 
limits thinking.  I'd assume that multi-layer controls would mitigate 
those delays in the same way semaphores (and other management tricks) 
enable multi-threaded operations to "merge" in a finished result in 
much less time than serial operations would complete. 
The upper layers would be rather slow, but would set the goals and strategies for the more local and fast layers. A bit like a prefrontal thought (timescale seconds) leads to a motor plan (timescale around 0.3-0.5 seconds) that turns into a motor action (timescales around 0.1 seconds).
*shrug* 'probably just result in a Marvin the Paranoid Android being a 
real thing. 
We are already suffering from a bit of split personality this way anyway. High level "I" do not have much control over a lot of first-order desires (more food!) despite having second-order desires (keep waistline!) based on rational reasons. And there are plenty of reflex arcs that act entirely of their own without asking the brain for permission. 
"I'm sorry my local mind forcibly dismantled your solar system before I could intervene; I sincerely respect the autonomy of all all intelligent life. Oh, by the way... this is me-galaxy-local. Please don't make a fuss that alerts me-supercluster-nonlocal. It has some odd notions I do not understand..."

Anders Sandberg, Future of Humanity Institute Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University
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