timtyler comments on Intelligence explosion in organizations, or why I'm not worried about the singularity - Less Wrong

13 Post author: sbenthall 27 December 2012 04:32AM

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Comment author: timtyler 29 December 2012 02:49:58PM *  -1 points [-]

Now, I don't think organizations are as dangerous as a UFAI would be, because most organizations cannot modify their own intelligence very well.

Today's orgaisations are surely better candidates for self-improvement of intelligence than today's machines are.

Of course both typically depend somewhat on the surrounding infrastructure, but organisations like the US government are fairly self-sufficient - or could easily become so - whereas machines are still completely dependent on others for extended cumulative improvements..

Basically, organisations are what we have today. Future intelligent machines are likely to arise out of today's organisations. So, these things are strongly linked together.

Comment author: MugaSofer 01 January 2013 04:26:00AM -1 points [-]

Today's orgaisations are surely better candidates for self-improvement of intelligence than today's machines are.

Are tomorrows' organizations better than tomorrows' machines? Because that's what is under discussion here.

Comment author: timtyler 01 January 2013 01:39:04PM *  0 points [-]

Yes, in some ways - assuming we are talking about a time when there are still lots of humans around - since organisations are a superset of humans and machines and so can combine the strengths of both.

No doubt eventually humans will become unemployable - but not until machines can do practically all their jobs better than them. That period covers an important era which many of us are concerned with.

Comment author: MugaSofer 01 January 2013 02:44:11PM -1 points [-]

Ah, I didn't realize you were including machines here - organizations are usually assumed to be composed of people, but I suppose a GAI could count as a "person" for this purpose.

However, isn't this dependent on the AI not going foom? Because if it does go foom, I can't see a superintelligence remaining under any pre-singularity organization's control.

Comment author: timtyler 01 January 2013 05:51:01PM *  0 points [-]

I didn't realize you were including machines here - organizations are usually assumed to be composed of people [...]

I can't say I've ever heard of that one. For example, Wikipedia has this:

An organisation (or organization – see spelling differences) is a social entity that has a collective goal and is linked to an external environment.

If you are not considering the possibility of artifacts being components of organizations, that may explain some of the cross-talk.