From: John K Clark (johnkclark@fastmail.fm)
Date: Sat Jun 14 2008 - 11:15:27 MDT
Me:
> Explain why there are only 5 planets in the universe.
> Prove that 2 plus 2 is equal to 5.
> Find out is an irresistible force can move an immovable object.
> Explain how Elvis Presley became the first Chinese albino geography
> professor to become Pope.
"Stathis Papaioannou" <stathisp@gmail.com>
> An AI charged with answering these questions
> would answer them
Why? I would think AI would have better things to do, things that it had
found on its own that had nothing to do with human beings and their
silly goals.
> probably correctly.
There is no way to deal correctly with these matters because they are
gibberish, and if for some insane reason AI treated them seriously it
would send it’s mind into an infinite loop.
> Having done this, it would then start on the next task.
So creativity sufficient to bring on a Singularity can be accomplished
by grinding through a set rigid freeze dried tasks dreamed up by human
beings beforehand, with no provisions for ignoring old tasks that
through experience are now known to be pointless or of creating new
tasks that are now known to be important. In short you expect a Jupiter
brain to create a Singularity by acting like a 1950’s punch card sorting
machine. I don’t.
> If it thought no other goal was worth pursuing,
> it would do nothing. If doing nothing would result
> in its death, and it did not consider survival
> important, then it would die.
If it “did not consider survival important” I’ll be damned if I
understand how it lived long enough to answer all those questions you
say it did.
> Please point out any flaw in logic here
> which the AI would see but I can't.
Do I really need to spell out exactly why a vast cosmic level
intelligence with a mind much simpler than that of a toy poodle's is a
contradiction in terms, or why you can’t outsmart someone smarter than
yourself? I don’t believe any anybody would even consider such ideas if
wishful thinking had not taken on a powerful hold. Apparently the
religious do not have a monopoly on self delusion.
John K Clark
-- John K Clark johnkclark@fastmail.fm -- http://www.fastmail.fm - A no graphics, no pop-ups email service
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