Why is life's purpose to create Artificial General Intelligence?

[GodParticipant]

Zweifel wrote:

Yes – one day AI could regard us in much the same way as we regard algae. (Except we won’t be playing a significant role in the food chain.)

Probably, yes.

 

[DavisModerator]

On the other hand, if you read The Selfish Gene, you will understand how our genes have their own plans for us

Is replacing “purpose” with “plans” really an improvement? Is referring to genes as an aspirational and driven force any better? It’s just replicating code.

[_Robert_Participant]

AI shares a lot of characteristics of living things. Doesn’t mean you should intentionally wrap it up with all that magical irrational thinking that afflicts us. We will need to keep AI on a rational track or it will just become a cluster phuck.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

Strega wrote:

I was with you, Popie, until your last paragraph, which was a tad convoluted

Which sentence? Oh no, wait, only one? 😉

How about the idea that perhaps a previous universe actually did end that way, but there happened to be so much self-awareness and artificial control over events in the universe, that “they” were able to save enough of the universe from entropy, in a way that enabled their dying universe to be reborn as a universe that’s highly amenable/likely to evolve life all over again?

Thought experiment, given:

• 1) Phase One, Big Bang universe; evolves through phases e.g. building up elements (filling periodic chart), biogenesis, intelligent beings with self-awareness eventually able to take control over mother nature and their own genetic evolution (i.e. moving us from natural, biological evolution to artificial intelligence and control of our destiny)
• 2) Phase 2, AI “beings” start to rearrange planets, solar systems, black holes, galaxies, what have you, such that the next Big Bang (whether in the current or another universe) is tuned such that the cycle repeats itself, Phase 1 and Phase 2.

E.g. @programmingGodJordan Consciousness in every being in the universe then join forces to make it happen, perhaps faster and faster… no, now I’m making up new stuff here.

Hmm, I’m still not as clear as I’d like to be, due to (largely self-imposed) limited internet time, so here’s a link that’s more simplified in concept: Fecund Universes. It’s more likely than my idea, because I’m not as smart and learned as those guys.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

I see a lot of use of words like “purpose” and “objective”, in a way that makes them sound like good things, in spite of the possibility or probability that humans may just die off because of them, ala “that’s just the way it is, folks”. You’re right that the word “purpose” isn’t only owned and deployed by religion. Still, purpose is too often used to mean “this is how you will comply with my plan, whether you like it or not”.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

but it may mean objective, and science largely concerns objectivity…

In this case the 2 words “object” and “objectivity” are not linked.

An objective, as the OP implies does relate to “purpose” or “intent”. However, objectivity, in the scientific sense is about a reality or truth that exists without being dependent on any one observers’ (subjective) opinion.

 

[.Spectator]

@programminggodjordan

I’m sorry but I don’t see the connection. The explanations just aren’t meshing for me. AI is a human invention. In the same was as we discovered fire, and then discovered the wheel…honestly the invention of the wheel was really IMHO the pivotal point of our evolution as far as being able to invent things that has now ultimately led to AI….

But that has NOTHING (I say emphatically) NOTHING to do with entropy….Entropy is a physics term in the field of thermodynamics. I think you’re trying to make a connection where there isn’t one. The field to really study why and how our ability to invent AI really lies within the field of neuroscience. It is our prefrontal cortex that is responsible for our ability to invent AI. It has nothing to do with entropy. And you cannot put a purpose on a physics term, or a frontal lobe, lol…. There is no purpose. You can explain how to came to be what it is today, but that’s really just that – an explanation.

[GodParticipant]

Bellen wrote:

@programminggodjordan I’m sorry but I don’t see the connection. The explanations just aren’t meshing for me. AI is a human invention. In the same was as we discovered fire, and then discovered the wheel…honestly the invention of the wheel was really IMHO the pivotal point of our evolution as far as being able to invent things that has now ultimately led to AI…. But that has NOTHING (I say emphatically) NOTHING to do with entropy….Entropy is a physics term in the field of thermodynamics. I think you’re trying to make a connection where there isn’t one. The field to really study why and how our ability to invent AI really lies within the field of neuroscience. It is our prefrontal cortex that is responsible for our ability to invent AI. It has nothing to do with entropy. And you cannot put a purpose on a physics term, or a frontal lobe, lol…. There is no purpose. You can explain how to came to be what it is today, but that’s really just that – an explanation.

On the contrary:

1. I don’t know why you refer to neuroscience (as if I wasn’t already aware of that) because as an Ai researcher, my own work heavily underlines the need for neuroscience, and also utilizes work from neuroscience (See Reference-A below).

2. Reference-A: See my “Supersymmetric Artificial Neural Network“.

3. I don’t know why you claim to see no connection between entropy and intelligence, especially when my hypothesis utilizes equations from Alex Wissner Gross’ paper, “Causal Entropic forces”. (See Reference-B and Reference-C below)

4. Reference-B: Image Snippet from Gross’ paper:

5. Reference-C: “Causal Entropic Forces“.

 

 

• This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by  God.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by  God.

[GodParticipant]

PopeBeanie wrote:

I see a lot of use of words like “purpose” and “objective”, in a way that makes them sound like good things, in spite of the possibility or probability that humans may just die off because of them, ala “that’s just the way it is, folks”. You’re right that the word “purpose” isn’t only owned and deployed by religion. Still, purpose is too often used to mean “this is how you will comply with my plan, whether you like it or not”.

1. The OP represents my hypothesis, so it may turn out to be invalid, and maybe life is purposeless instead.
2. Or maybe the objective/purpose of human life may relate to evolution.
3. Or maybe the objective/purpose of human life may relate to evolution, entropy and AGI creation as my hypothesis suggests.
4. There are other possibilities, and we have many possibilities, until further study is done to eliminate or improve said possibilities.

• This reply was modified 7 years, 4 months ago by  God.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

The definition and context of purpose is a big issue here, because it’s too easy to conflate its meaning in the context of engineering/scientific language, a discussion of how a process works in detail, a discussion of how supernatural agent purportedly expects one to behave, etc. E.g., the purpose of a screw is to fasten two objects together; the purpose of mating is to produce a viable zygote which grows biologically similarly to its parents; the purpose of blah blah bs bs and jesus on toast is to further God’s will.

I just don’t see how the creation of AI fits into any context, other than what’s invented by human beings, or perhaps other biologically evolved intelligent life in the universe. One could just as easily claim that life’s purpose is to cause black holes to grow larger, and everything else to cool down to absolute zero.

 

[GodParticipant]

PopeBeanie wrote:

I just don’t see how the creation of AI fits into any context, other than what’s invented by human beings, or perhaps other biologically evolved intelligent life in the universe.

1. I don’t have a hypothesis for what may happen after AGI is created by humans, so I merely hypothesize on what humans’ objective may reasonably be, wrt and as far as AGI creation.
2. Although yes, long after AGI is invented, one may garner that the universe may end up absent work or cognitive activity (i.e. some heat death).

 

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by  God.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by  God.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by  God.

[GodParticipant]

PopeBeanie wrote:

I just don’t see how the creation of AI fits into any context, other than what’s invented by human beings, or perhaps other biologically evolved intelligent life in the universe.

1. Consider the image in reply #7497 above.

2. Given the reasonable connection between intelligence and entropy maximization, my hypothesis argues that the objective of humans is reasonably to trigger a way in which entropy is further maximized in nature. (i.e. by creating things with even more intelligence than humans)

 

• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by  God.
• This reply was modified 7 years, 3 months ago by  God.

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