> Interesting. Both Lyle and Anders have objected to my scenario of
> the "transcendence" of an SI by takeover of the internet by a program
> that uses the computing resources to augmemt its own intelligence.
Dan, the problem I see for your scenario isn't that it may not arise at
all (quite the opposite --- I think that learning neural/fuzzy AI automata
will see the light of day long before strong nanotech), but that when/if
it does arise then it will be subject to the same constraints that have
dogged Mankind since the dawn of time, namely the limits to growth that
result from lack of atomic-level control over matter.
That's why I see the knee of the high-order curve that leads to the
Singularity happening after nanotech, rather than after emergence of SI.
Having said that, the order may be irrelevant. Over an appropriate
timescale (less than geological :-), these two events are likely to
coincide, if one believes in reductionism and the direct emergence of
AI once an appropriate artificial neural substrate is available. Heck,
we're nearly there now, even without nanotech. Interesting times.
Rich.
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