Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
>> At the world level, average IQ scores have increased
>> dramatically over the last century (the Flynn effect), as the
>> world has learned better ways to think and to teach.
>> Nevertheless, IQs have improved steadily, instead of
>> accelerating. Similarly, for decades computer and
>> communication aids have made engineers much "smarter,"
>> without accelerating Moore's law. While engineers got
>> smarter, their design tasks got harder.
>
>And, to summarize briefly my reply from the Singularity debate:
>
>All your examples, and moreover all your assumptions, deal with (1) roughly
>constant intelligence and (2) a total lack of positive feedback. That is, the
>model treats with the curve of a constant optimizing ability, which quite
>naturally peters out. The improvements are not to the optimizing ability, but
>to something else. The Flynn effect improves brains, not evolution. Moore's
>law improves hardware, and even VLSI design aids, but not brains. There's no
>positive feedback into anything, much less intelligence. With intelligence
>enhancement, each increment of intelligence results in a new prioritized list,
>since improving intelligence changes which improvements can be contemplated or perceived.
Robin Hanson
hanson@econ.berkeley.edu http://hanson.berkeley.edu/ RWJF Health Policy Scholar FAX: 510-643-8614 140 Warren Hall, UC Berkeley, CA 94720-7360 510-643-1884