This is what the biologist Mayr focuses on. The model I use in the
paper also implies that there is only *one* hard step associated with
human success, not a sequence of smaller steps.
>So now I'm starting to think that much of the Great Filter, probably much
>more than lies in the evolution of eukaryotic endosymbiosis, lies in the
>evolution of the various neural-net internal control mechanisms that enable
>us to learn and transmit culture, including language but many other
>memetic-transmission mechanisms as well.
This would imply that artificial intelligence has a very hard road ahead,
trying to rediscover this key breakthrough, and so uploads may be more
likely to appear first.
Robin Hanson hanson@hss.caltech.edu http://hss.caltech.edu/~hanson/