For those that need the address of the bar, it's 239 Fa Yuen Street:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=239+Fa+Yuen+Street&aq=&sll=22.322302,114.170554&sspn=0.010401,0.019205&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=239+Fa+Yuen+St,+Hong+Kong&ll=22.326279,114.169686&spn=0.010401,0.019205&t=h&z=16

(I have no idea why it's called "168 Future" ;-P)

My comment relates to the state of OpenCog when I downloaded it in November 2009. It's entirely possible that things are much improved since then. I think it was reasonable to assume that things hadn't changed much though since the code looked mostly empty at that time and I didn't sense that there was any active development by anyone who wasn't on the Novamente/OpenCog team an an employee or close team member. There were comments in the code at the time stating that pieces were missing because they hadn't yet been released from Novamente. Hopefully those are gone now.

Sorry I didn't join you on IRC. I never noticed you had a channel.

I could have sent an email to the list. But again, it looked like I couldn't contribute to OpenCog unless I somehow got hired by OpenCog/Novamente or ingratiated myself to the current team and found a way to become part of the inner circle. I was considering if that would be a good idea at the time but figured that emailing the list with "Duuuhhhh... I can't compile it. WTF?" would only frustrate internal developers, get condescending replies from people who had unreleased code that made their versions work, or get requests for funding to help open source the unreleased code.

Hopefully things have improved in the last 1.5 years. I would love to support OpenCog. The vision you guys have looks great.

What new insights are there?

Even if they don't want to discuss their insights "ad nauseum", I need some indication that they have new insights. Otherwise they won't be able to build AI. "Busy developing and researching" doesn't look very promising from the outside, considering how many other groups present themselves the same way.

I'll also volunteer my place in Mong Kok on Fa Yuen St if it's a small meet up of 4-5 people. There is a bar down the road called "168 Future" which might be a contender to head out for drinks.

(Neither options have skyline unfortunately however)

I'm in Hong Kong for the OpenCog-related project here (http://opencog.org/2010/10/opencog-based-game-characters-at-hong-kong-poly-u/). I'm a "transplanted Westerner", originally from New Zealand (moved here about 2 months ago). Available basically any evening.

ferrouswheel:

Well, if you bothered looking at our/OpenCog's roadmap you'll see it doesn't expect AGI in a "few years".

The roadmap on opencog.org has among its milestones: "2019-2021: Full-On Human Level AGI."

What magical software engineering tools are you after that can't be built with the current tools we have?

Well, if I knew, I'd be cashing in on the idea, not discussing it here. In any case, surely you must agree that claiming the ability to develop an AGI within a decade is a very extraordinary claim.

Too bad we can't judge Friendly AI charity effectiveness as "easily" as we can judge the effectiveness of some other charities, like those which distribute malaria nets and vaccines.

If one assumes that giving toward solving the Friendly AI problem offers the highest marginal return on investment, which project do you give to? Yudkowsky / SIAI? OpenCog / Goertzel? Gert-Jan Lokhorst? Stan Franklin / Wendell Wallach / Colin Allen?

My money is on SIAI, but I can't justify that with anything quick and easy.

Has anyone here ever tried to contribute to the OpenCog project?

Because I have.

You know what I learned?

This open source* code is missing huge components that are proprietary parts of Ben's Novamente system. So if you're a coder, you can't actually compile it, run it, or do anything with else with it. Ben's holding all the key components hostage and refuses to release them until he's paid money. If you'd like to pay someone a second time to open source the code they already wrote, OpenCog is an excellent charity. Hopefully after he gets enough money to actually show us what he written, Ben's software will cause an amazing Singularity with ponies for everyone. I guess proprietary software can't create Singularities... or ponies.... or funding.

• Open Source = closed source components you can't have + empty stubs of code

Here's an argument that may influence XiXiDu: people like Scott Aaronson and John Baez find Eliezer's ideas worth discussing, while Ben doesn't seem to have any ideas to discuss.