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XiXiDu comments on Open Thread, April 1-15, 2012 - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: OpenThreadGuy 01 April 2012 04:24AM

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Comment author: XiXiDu 01 April 2012 07:16:22PM *  5 points [-]

Because making money is nontrivial and requires more than just intelligence?

Could I extrapolate your statement and conclude that what makes an AGI dangerous is not its intelligence, because that wouldn't be sufficient? Or would you qualify your statement in that case?

Comment author: John_Maxwell_IV 01 April 2012 07:23:15PM *  9 points [-]

Humans have lots of bugs in their brains, like difficulty getting themselves to work, fear of embarrassment, vulnerability to discouragement, difficulty acting on abstract ideas, etc. Good entrepreneurs have to overcome those bugs. An AGI wouldn't have them in the first place.

Comment author: David_Gerard 01 April 2012 08:08:41PM 3 points [-]

An AGI wouldn't have them in the first place.

That's a sizable assertion. There's an important difference between "known to have no bugs" and "has no known bugs."

Comment author: John_Maxwell_IV 01 April 2012 08:22:10PM 9 points [-]

It seems unlikely that an AGI would suffer from the same evolution inspired troubles that humans do. Might have some other bugs.

Comment author: [deleted] 01 April 2012 08:00:45PM *  0 points [-]

Good entrepreneurs have to overcome those bugs.

But surely intelligence is what enables humans to overcome the bugs in their brains?

Comment author: John_Maxwell_IV 01 April 2012 08:13:35PM *  5 points [-]

It helps, and that's why successful entrepreneurs are often pretty smart. If you're a smart person who's good at self-improvement, you can improve yourself Benjamin Franklin style (reading lots of business book summaries, trying to brainstorm how you can be more effective every evening, etc.), fix some brain bugs, and potentially make lots of money. My impression of successful entrepreneurs is that they are often self-improvement enthusiasts.

On the other hand, consider the "geek" versus "suit" stereotype. The "suit" is more determined and confident, but less intelligent. So it's not clear that intelligence is correlated with possessing fewer of these bugs in practice. I'm not sure why this is, although I have a few guesses.