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Comment author:username2
07 October 2016 02:50:45AM
2 points
[-]
Your example of a magic wand doesn't sound correct to me. By what basis is a Midas touch "optimizing"? It is powerful, yes, but why "optimizing"? A supernova that vaporizes entire planets is powerful, but not optimizing. Seems like a strawman.
Defining intelligence as pattern recognizing is not new. Ben Goertzel has espoused this view for some twenty years, and written a book on the subject I believe. I'm not sure I buy the strong connection with "recognizing the abstract concept of a goal" and such, however. There are plenty of conceivable architectures for which this meta level thinking is incapable of happening, yet nevertheless are capable of producing arbitrarily complex intelligent behavior.
Regarding your last point, your terminology is unnecessarily obscuring. There doesn't have to be a "magic point" -- it could be simply a matter of correct software, but insufficient data or processing power. A human baby is a very stupid device, incapable of doing anything intelligent. But with experiential data and processing time it becomes a very powerful general intelligence over the course of 25 years, without any designer intervention. You bring up this very point yourself which seems to counteract your claim.
Also, the wand is optimizing. The reason is that it doesn't just do some consistent chemical process that works in some circumstances: it works no matter what particular circumstances it is in. It is just the same as the fact that a paperclipper produces paperclips no matter what circumstance it starts out in.
A supernova on the other hand does not optimize, because it produces different results in different situations.
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Comments (31)
Your example of a magic wand doesn't sound correct to me. By what basis is a Midas touch "optimizing"? It is powerful, yes, but why "optimizing"? A supernova that vaporizes entire planets is powerful, but not optimizing. Seems like a strawman.
Defining intelligence as pattern recognizing is not new. Ben Goertzel has espoused this view for some twenty years, and written a book on the subject I believe. I'm not sure I buy the strong connection with "recognizing the abstract concept of a goal" and such, however. There are plenty of conceivable architectures for which this meta level thinking is incapable of happening, yet nevertheless are capable of producing arbitrarily complex intelligent behavior.
Regarding your last point, your terminology is unnecessarily obscuring. There doesn't have to be a "magic point" -- it could be simply a matter of correct software, but insufficient data or processing power. A human baby is a very stupid device, incapable of doing anything intelligent. But with experiential data and processing time it becomes a very powerful general intelligence over the course of 25 years, without any designer intervention. You bring up this very point yourself which seems to counteract your claim.
Also, the wand is optimizing. The reason is that it doesn't just do some consistent chemical process that works in some circumstances: it works no matter what particular circumstances it is in. It is just the same as the fact that a paperclipper produces paperclips no matter what circumstance it starts out in.
A supernova on the other hand does not optimize, because it produces different results in different situations.