Re: Subjective brain speed

Robin Hanson (hanson@econ.Berkeley.EDU)
Tue, 06 Jan 1998 12:03:40 -0800

Max M <maxm@maxmcorp.dk> writes:
>It has occured to me that I don't need to become a weak
>superintelligence to accellerate the speed of my brain. The more I
>learn, the faster I think. Both subjectively and objectively.
>Problems that used to take me a long time I can now solve in a jiffy.
>Well nothing new here probably. Just a reminder that we can probably
>become a lot more >H without technology than most of us realise.
>Pure old studying will go a long way.

I'd go further and say that this is the dominant way we get better
minds, both now and in the future. Compare two creatures a century
from now: one has today's brian hardware and tommorow's knowledge, and
the other has tommorow's brain hardware, but only has access to
the knowledge of today. My bet is that the first creature would be
"smarter" for most purposes.

Robin Hanson
hanson@econ.berkeley.edu http://hanson.berkeley.edu/
RWJF Health Policy Scholar, Sch. of Public Health 510-643-1884
140 Warren Hall, UC Berkeley, CA 94720-7360 FAX: 510-643-8614