mathemajician comments on Stupid Questions Open Thread - Less Wrong

42 Post author: Costanza 29 December 2011 11:23PM

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Comment author: mathemajician 30 December 2011 09:31:06PM 0 points [-]

Right, but the problem with this counter example is that it isn't actually possible. A counter example that could occur would be much more convincing.

Personally, if a GLUT could cure cancer, cure aging, prove mind blowing mathematical results, write a award wining romance novel, take over the world, and expand out to take over the universe... I'd be happy considering it to be extremely intelligent.

Comment author: orthonormal 30 December 2011 09:39:48PM 3 points [-]

It's infeasible within our physics, but it's possible for (say) our world to be a simulation within a universe of vaster computing power, and to have a GLUT from that world interact with our simulation. I'd say that such a GLUT was extremely powerful, but (once I found out what it really was) I wouldn't call it intelligent- though I'd expect whatever process produced it (e.g. coded in all of the theorem-proof and problem-solution pairs) to be a different and more intelligent sort of process.

That is, a GLUT is the optimizer equivalent of a tortoise with the world on its back- it needs to be supported on something, and it would be highly unlikely to be tortoises all the way down.