Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!nanotech From: cunews!cognos!geovision!gd@dciem (Gord Deinstadt) Newsgroups: sci.nanotech Subject: Re: Some problems of super-intelligence Message-ID: Date: 4 Jan 91 04:34:37 GMT Sender: nanotech@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: GeoVision Corp., Ottawa, Ontario Lines: 27 Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu rjenkins@.com (Robert Jenkins) writes: >Then, if we build computers that can think faster than us, we could link to >them, tell them our problems, then "remember" the computer's solutions. >We could even remember the steps the computer used to reach those solutions. >If we teach the computer to think like we do, how could we distinguish this >from just solving the problems ourselves? That sounds to me like just what our brains do right now. My subjective understanding of consciousness is that it is a mechanism for creating a linear, coherent memory of a sequence of states out of the parallel, unsynchronized outputs of different parts (or virtual parts) of the brain. If this is so, then we are already set up to merge in data from external sources. In that case it is quite reasonable to imagine spinning off a software task, which migrates over the computer network finding the data it needs, then having it return to my brain with the result, and me never being aware of the difference. However, I wouldn't risk a network connection to my brain. Think of the danger of viruses; whole populations gone mad. Or docile. Or having their memories modified. -- Gord Deinstadt gdeinstadt@geovision.UUCP