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IntelligenceExplosion.com

10 Post author: lukeprog 07 August 2011 05:46PM

I put together a 'landing page' for the intelligence explosion concept similar to Nick Bostrom's landing pages for anthropics, the simulation argument, and existential risk. The new website is IntelligenceExplosion.com. You can see I borrowed the CSS from Bostrom's anthropics page and then simplified it.

Just as with the Singularity FAQ, I'll be keeping this website up to date, so please send me corrections or bibliography additions at luke [at] singinst [dot] org.

Comments (24)

Comment author: Lightwave 08 August 2011 10:45:40AM *  36 points [-]

I offer my web design skills to improve the site design/code (for free). I can send you a redesign sample if you'd like.

Edit: it's done.

Comment author: curiousepic 07 August 2011 05:58:41PM 7 points [-]

I don't care for the graphic - it doesn't really get the idea across very well, and its composition and quality is kind of grating. IMO, at the moment, having no graphic is preferable.

Comment author: AdeleneDawner 07 August 2011 06:04:03PM 1 point [-]

Agreed. Even with a decent grasp on the concept it's supposed to be showing, it took me a while to figure out what it was trying to show. The arrow from the brain to the brain in particular doesn't seem to click. (If you really want a graphical representation along that line, something with a bubble moving along the arrow and into the brain, and the brain expanding as the bubble dissolves, would probably work better.)

Comment author: lukeprog 07 August 2011 10:33:58PM 0 points [-]

Anybody have an idea for how to represent intelligence explosion graphically?

Comment author: Dreaded_Anomaly 07 August 2011 11:03:21PM 3 points [-]

The concept you're trying to convey might become more obvious if you used thought bubbles instead of arrows. Have the humans imagine the artificial brain, and it appears; then have the artificial brain imagine a bigger version of itself, and it grows; and so forth. (This will involve more frames in a larger .gif, but I think it will make the process clearer.)

Comment author: omslin 07 August 2011 11:42:34PM 2 points [-]

Animated GIFs look unprofessional.

Comment author: lukeprog 08 August 2011 01:00:48AM *  2 points [-]

That is a problem. What do ya'll think of the new image?

Comment author: steven0461 08 August 2011 07:23:00PM *  8 points [-]

It doesn't make as much sense without the context of showing the parochial human picture first, and I'm worried that without that context it'll just come across as hyperbole. "The AI will be thiiiiiiiiiiis much smarter than Einstein!!!" It also suggests too strong a connection between recursive self-improvement and a specific level of intelligence.

Comment author: shokwave 08 August 2011 03:11:12AM 1 point [-]

Like. The big problem in explaining intelligence explosions is not explaining the process - in my experience, people grasp the process very intuitively from even my unclear explanations. The big problem is communicating the end result: recursive self-improvement takes AI off the far end of the human scale of intelligence. (The process might only be disputed as a way to reject the end result.) This image does a lot of that work right away.

Comment author: dbaupp 08 August 2011 08:03:43AM 1 point [-]

Where's EY?

(More seriously: that image looks much nicer)

Comment author: steven0461 07 August 2011 10:51:11PM 1 point [-]

Probably too silly to use here, but one thing that comes to mind is a brain reshaped to have the form of a nuclear mushroom.

Comment author: Incorrect 08 August 2011 01:58:42AM 1 point [-]

That might be misinterpreted to mean "mind blowing."

Comment author: Manfred 07 August 2011 11:23:39PM 1 point [-]

Maybe has the wrong connotations :P

Comment author: Incorrect 08 August 2011 01:55:18AM *  0 points [-]

(λf.(λx.f (x x)) (λx.f (x x))) {image of a brain}

Comment author: Alex_Altair 08 August 2011 11:32:18PM 0 points [-]

What lambda expression grows exponentially with each evaluation?

Comment author: Incorrect 08 August 2011 11:43:23PM 1 point [-]

It's called the Y combinator. If evaluated lazily it wont necessarily run forever.

Comment author: shokwave 08 August 2011 03:16:23AM *  4 points [-]

The primer uses "light cone" several times towards the end; considering replacing with something less technical? Something like "our part of the universe" maybe.

Also the second-last paragraph of the primer has a typo:

For example, suppose the superintelligent maachine shares all our intrinsic goals but lacks our goal

Comment author: aletheilia 09 August 2011 11:52:20PM 2 points [-]

What is the difference between the ideas of recursive self-improvement and intelligence explosion?

They sometimes get used interchangeably, but I'm not sure they actually refer to the same thing. It wouldn't hurt if you could clarify this somewhere, I guess.

Comment author: jsalvatier 07 August 2011 09:47:18PM 2 points [-]

Good on you for making this.

The site talks about 'the intelligence explosion' which doesn't seem quite right since it's a kind of process than a specific event. You might want to say 'an' intelligence explosion, though that would sound awkward.

Comment author: lukeprog 08 August 2011 01:06:34AM 2 points [-]

Done.

Comment author: Endovior 11 August 2011 07:49:00PM 1 point [-]

From the site: "If there is a 'fast takeoff', the first self-improving AI will could prevent any competing machine superintelligences from arising."

'will could' sounds wrong; one of those two words needs to go.

Comment deleted 07 August 2011 09:14:43PM [-]
Comment author: AdeleneDawner 07 August 2011 09:18:27PM *  0 points [-]

I'm seeing a 'no hotlinking' message. (Also, the downvote isn't from me.)

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 07 August 2011 09:36:35PM 2 points [-]

That was strange, a picture of a cat too big to fit into the markup, and no text indicating its relevance, from a username "BigCat", so I banned the comment for now...