Interesting, although of course we all know that the infinitely fast
computer doesn't exist anyway. The point of the thought experiment,
similar to your own, is to focus on the issue of how hard it would be
logically to come up with a method to create intelligence.
I seem to recall a claim that Eric Drexler had an idea for creating
synthetic intelligence by means of an evolution simulation. You'd set
up a simulation of something similar to our own laws of physics, give
it initial conditions like the primordial earth, and just wait while
life and then intelligence evolve. Supposedly he had calculated that
a practical quantity of nanocomputers could re-create the entire
evolution of life on earth in a reasonable amount of time. Then maybe
you run it for a few more minutes and get super-human intelligence.
(Of course what would really happen is, once the AIs reach human level
intelligence, they'll stop getting smarter and instead create their own
nanotech simulations to evolve their own super-smart AIs. But those
simulated AIs won't get beyond human level either, they start up a
simulation, etc., etc.)
I haven't been able to find the exact description of Drexler's idea,
but I think it was on this list sometime in the last few years. Does
anybody remember this?
hal