Re: COMP: AI substrate

Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Mon, 26 Jul 1999 04:59:00 -0500

Eugene Leitl wrote:
>
> Oh, we can't program it properly? But a 100 kCPU machine can shuffle
> opcodes damn quickly, 24 h/day, 365 d/year. Despite all the Kozas of
> this world, we cannot mutate assembler opcodes in a nonbrittle
> manner. However, nothing prevents us from making a robust mutator
> function our fitness goal. Find the code which mutates the machine
> code without breaking it too often. Feed back the best performing
> mutation function specimens back into the population searching for the
> best mutation function. (Did somebody just said
> "autocatalysis"?). Mix, stir, repeat until done.

Okay, so it's a damn big pattern-catcher, but it's still just a pattern-catcher. I don't think AI is that simple. It sounds large, in absolute terms, but relative to what already exists:

  1. Raw power is about the equivalent of, what, a rat's brain?
  2. Self-programming algorithm... around the spider level, I'd guess.

If intelligence was that simple, rats would be sentient.

-- 
           sentience@pobox.com          Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
        http://pobox.com/~sentience/tmol-faq/meaningoflife.html
Running on BeOS           Typing in Dvorak          Programming with Patterns
Voting for Libertarians   Heading for Singularity   There Is A Better Way