I.J. Good on Artificial Intelligence Tuesday, Apr 29 2008
singularity 9:14 pm
Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an ‘intelligence explosion,’ and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make.
– I.J. Good
in between proving theorems I.J. was a bona fide country club pimp
I think intelligence augmentation will prove a faster trend then AI; for two reasons:
1) The general lack of support towards creating a super intelligent machine; people are already insecure when it comes to other humans, the idea that we will be left behind by our machines scares us.
2) It might be more viable to alter and improve what nature has already created then to create a completely new kind of intelligence.
This is just an assertion on my part; I might be totally wrong. In any case, it seems we are closer to understanding the human brain and altering it (there are currently loads of people working on the science of the brain; and much fewer working on true AI) then creating a truly intelligent computer.
Some antidotal evidence that supports this: I can right now come up with several very plausible ways in which the human brain might be improved or understood; while I can’t confidently come up with ways in which true AI could be created -there are theories-but right now they are highly conceptual; there is a limited amount of research going into these avenues, unlike brain research.
P.S. – Again, his could be entirely wrong; AI might be helped by the fact that it doesn’t require human testing or trials (which slows down progress) and competition in the software and hardware world will drive improvement.
Ill do this if require to as a lot as I hope that is not too far off the track.