RE: Who will launch the Singularity?

From: Smigrodzki, Rafal (SmigrodzkiR@msx.upmc.edu)
Date: Thu Jun 27 2002 - 17:01:04 MDT


Ben Goertzel [mailto:ben@goertzel.org]

 
History shows that throwing money at a problem is not always the best way to
solve it!
 
This is why these days, major software firms tend to effectively outsource
most of their software R&D to startups -- acquiring those startups that have
produced something clearly valuable.

### Yes, the basic research takes time, genius, and luck to succeed. But
once a good proof of principle experiment is successfull (fission in a small
chunk of uranium), the task of transforming it into a useful product (the
nuclear weapon) might require only a massive engineering and sclaing-up
effort. I do not know enough about AI (it's fair to say I know almost
nothing) - so instead let me ask you: Do you think that there will be a
phase in the AI project (perhaps at the high-infrahuman level) where further
improvements will become a matter of computational and organizational muscle
applied to the principles you develop?

If not, then I'd retract my assessment of the Govt. chances in the S-race.

Rafal



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