mind is all that matters (eliezer yudkowsky, transvision 2007)
DESCRIPTION
from the Singularity Conference 2007TRANSCRIPT
Mind Is All That Matters:Reasons to Focus on Cognitive
Technologies
Eliezer YudkowskySingularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
singinst.org
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
(Image from Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Felleman, D.J. and Van Essen, D.C. (1991) Distributed hierarchical processing in primate visual cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 1: 1-47.
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
"Book smarts" vs. cognition:
"Book smarts" evokes images of:
• Calculus• Chess• Memorizing facts• Strict rules in well-
understood situations
Other stuff that happens in the brain:
• Persuasiveness• Enthusiasm• Empathy• Strategic thinking• Musical talent• Rationality
The scale of intelligent minds:a parochial view.
Village idiot Einstein
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
The scale of intelligent minds:a parochial view.
Village idiot Einstein
A more cosmopolitan view:
Village idiot
Chimp Einstein
Mouse
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
"Supermen are superthinkers;anything else is a side issue."
-- SF author Robert Heinlein
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
©Marlo Steed
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
One of these technologies is not like the others...
Artificial Intelligence
Cancer cure
Interplanetary travel
Nanomanufacturing
"The influence of animal or vegetable life on matter is infinitely beyond the range of any scientific inquiry hitherto entered on. Its power of directing the motions of moving particles, in the demonstrated daily miracle of our human free-will, and in the growth of generation after generation of plants from a single seed, are infinitely different from any possible result of the fortuitous concurrence of atoms... Modern biologists were coming once more to the acceptance of something and that was a vital principle."
-- Lord Kelvin
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Village idiot
Chimp Einstein
Mouse
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
AI
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
In Every Known Human Culture:
• tool making
• weapons
• grammar
• tickling
• meal times
• mediation of conflicts
• dance, singing
• personal names
• promises
• mourning
(Donald E. Brown, 1991. Human universals. New York: McGraw-Hill.)
A complex adaptation must be universal within a species.
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
(John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, 1992. The Psychological Foundations of Culture. In The Adapted Mind, eds. Barkow, Cosmides, and Tooby.)
A complex adaptation must be universal within a species.
If: 6 necessary genes
Each at 10% frequency in population
Then: 1 in 1,000,000 have complete adaptation
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
(John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, 1992. The Psychological Foundations of Culture. In The Adapted Mind, eds. Barkow, Cosmides, and Tooby.)
Incremental evolution of complexity:
1. [A] A is advantageous by itself.
2. [A←B] B depends on A.
3. [A'↔B] A' replaces A, depends on B.
4. [A'B←C] C depends on A' and B
...
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
(John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, 1992. The Psychological Foundations of Culture. In The Adapted Mind, eds. Barkow, Cosmides, and Tooby.)
The Psychic Unity of Humankind
Complex adaptations
must be universal in a species –
including cognitive machinery
in Homo sapiens!
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
(John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, 1992. The Psychological Foundations of Culture. In The Adapted Mind, eds. Barkow, Cosmides, and Tooby.)
Must… not…
emote…
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
The Great Failureof Imagination:
Anthropomorphism
Mind Projection Fallacy:
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
If I am ignorant about a phenomenon,
this is a fact about my state of mind,
not a fact about the phenomenon.
(Jaynes, E.T. 2003. Probability Theory: The Logic of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.)
Minds-in-general
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Human minds
Minds-in-general
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Human minds
Transhuman mindspace
Minds-in-general
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Human minds
Posthuman mindspace
Transhuman mindspace
Minds-in-general
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Human minds
Gloopy AIs
Posthuman mindspace
Freepy AIs
Bipping AIs
Transhuman mindspace
Minds-in-general
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Human minds
Gloopy AIs
Posthuman mindspace
Freepy AIs
Bipping AIs
Transhuman mindspace
YOUARE
HERE
Fallacy of the Giant Cheesecake
• Major premise: A superintelligence could create a mile-high cheesecake.
• Minor premise: Someone will create a recursively self-improving AI.
• Conclusion: The future will be full of giant cheesecakes.
Power does not imply motive.
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Fallacy of the Giant Cheesecake
• Major premise: A superintelligence could create a mile-high cheesecake.
• Minor premise: Someone will create a recursively self-improving AI.
• Conclusion: The future will be full of giant cheesecakes.
Power does not imply motive.
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Minds-in-general
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Human minds
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Minds-in-general
YOUARE
HERE
Minds-in-general
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
YOUARE
HERE
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Intelligence
Technology
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
IntelligenceIntelligenceTechnologyTechnology
Cognitive TechnologyCloses the Loop:
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
I. J. Good's"Intelligence Explosion":
AIAI
(Good, I. J. 1965. Speculations Concerning the First Ultraintelligent Machine.)
Village idiot
Chimp Einstein
Mouse
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
AI
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Friendly AI
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Friendly AI
Summary:
• Intelligence supports all human abilities
• Technology comes from intelligence
• Whatever impacts intelligence lifts the tree by its roots
• >H equals >H mind• Cognitive technology
opens vast new regions of mind design space
• Technology improving intelligence closes the loop - positive feedback!
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
To grasp the future,focus on technologies
that impact upon the mind.
Mind Is All That Matters
Eliezer YudkowskySingularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
singinst.org