khafra comments on Open Thread June 2010, Part 3 - Less Wrong

6 Post author: Kevin 14 June 2010 06:14AM

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Comment author: khafra 14 June 2010 12:37:58PM 8 points [-]

Wikipedia says the term "Synthetic Intelligence" is a synonym for GAI. I'd like to propose a different use: as a name for the superclass encompassing things like prediction markets. This usage occurred to me while considering 4chan as a weakly superintelligent optimization process with a single goal; something along the lines of "producing novelty;" something it certainly does with a paperclippy single-mindedness we wouldn't expect out of a human.

It may be that there's little useful to be gained by considering prediction markets and chans as part of the same category, or that I'm unable to find all the prior art in this area because I'm using the wrong search terms--but it does seem somewhat larger and more practical than gestalt intelligence.

Comment author: timtyler 15 June 2010 08:48:18PM *  4 points [-]

That is usually called "collective intelligence":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_intelligence

Calling it "synthetic Intelligence" would be bad, IMO.

Comment author: khafra 15 June 2010 10:05:43PM 1 point [-]

It appears the "wrong search terms" hypothesis was the correct one. Curses.
Thanks for correcting me.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 15 June 2010 01:41:21PM 0 points [-]

Could you expand on what would be included and excluded from Synthetic Intelligence?

Would a free market count?

Comment author: khafra 15 June 2010 02:11:30PM 0 points [-]

Good question. I didn't mean to take ownership of the term, but I'd consider the "invisible hand" part to be the synthetic intelligence; and the rest of the market's activities to be other synthetic appendages and organs.