If you had an interesting Less Wrong meetup recently, but don't have the time to write up a big report to post to Discussion, feel free to write a comment here. Even if it's just a couple lines about what you did and how people felt about it, it might encourage some people to attend meetups or start meetups in their area.
If you have the time, you can also describe what types of exercises you did, what worked and what didn't. This could help inspire meetups to try new things and improve themselves in various ways.
If you're inspired by what's posted below and want to organize a meetup, check out this page for some resources to get started! You can also check FrankAdamek's weekly post on meetups for the week.
Previous Meetup Report Thread: February 2014
Guidelines: Please post the meetup reports as top-level comments, and debate the specific meetup below its comment. Anything else goes under the "Meta" top-level comment. The title of this thread should be interpreted as "up to and including September 2014", which means feel free to post reports of meetups that happened in August, July, June, etc.
Review about the Rationality Meetup in Vienna on 27.09.2014
Superintelligence Summary by Marko Thiel
People who were there: Andreas, Matthias Brandner, Manuel K., Monika, Marko, Viliam Bur, Alex, Philip, Anna, Philipp, Tino/Sandy, Austin, Milica, Luka, Ivan, Axel, Lea, Lio, Andreas V., Manuel M. (20 people - awesome! And so many were new!)
Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom (presented by Marko Thiel)
First announcement: ethics will not be discussed and rather be ignored today, because otherwise he would never finish
Quote "Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an “intelligence explosion,” and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control."
definition:
(I sadly didn't take notes here)
paths:
AI -> strong AI
whole brain emulation
biological cognition (improve humans, chemical substances/nootropics, embryo selection -> lots of generations in vitro)
interface with machine
networks and organizations
forms:
speed Superintellicence (like human but faster)
collective Superintelligence (together smarter)
quality Superintelligence (totally different to human)
intelligence explosion:
there will be a crossover after which the machine itself will go on improving the system
graph to show how similar an idiot and Einstein are compared to a mouse or Superintelligence
rate of intelligence change
AI takeover:
precritial
intelligence amplification
cover + preparation
overt implementation
-> arises the question of where the motivation to do so comes from!
the super intelligence will:
Castes:
oracles
genies
sovereign
tool
predictability:
design
convergent instrumental goals (for example: self-preservation, goal-content integrity, cognitive enhancement, technology, resource acquisition -> infrastructure profusion)
other topics: failure modes, control problem, acquire values, choosing who to choose, do what I mean, the strategic picture
Comments I wrote down
by Andreas: "Does SI include self-awareness?" answer: "No"
by Ivan: Has someone tried to breed an human intelligent dog?
by Lio: Is it possible to have something that's good in all the things? -> Viliam: Yes, with a network structure
by Austin: Is there a difference between biological or programmed happiness? -> Manuel: the utility function of a thermostat is to be at 20 degrees, it doesn't WANT to be there
in the evening:
for the next meetup:
We will vote on the date in the Facebook group
we will have three topics and the third one will be to collect personal goals we want to achieve with/in the group/ideas we have for the group