This is for anyone in the LessWrong community who has made at least some effort to read the sequences and follow along, but is still confused on some point, and is perhaps feeling a bit embarrassed. Here, newbies and not-so-newbies are free to ask very basic but still relevant questions with the understanding that the answers are probably somewhere in the sequences. Similarly, LessWrong tends to presume a rather high threshold for understanding science and technology. Relevant questions in those areas are welcome as well. Anyone who chooses to respond should respectfully guide the questioner to a helpful resource, and questioners should be appropriately grateful. Good faith should be presumed on both sides, unless and until it is shown to be absent. If a questioner is not sure whether a question is relevant, ask it, and also ask if it's relevant.
You misunderstand me. I'm pointing out that a GLUT is an example of something with (potentially) immense optimization power, but whose use of computational resources is ridiculously prodigal, and which we might hesitate to call truly intelligent. This is evidence that our concept of intelligence does in fact include some notion of efficiency, even if people don't think of this aspect without prompting.
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.