The universities, companies, and individuals involved in this machine learning renaissance are a collective super-intelligence.
It's amazing how fast we can learn now, fuelled by information-sharing over the internet. I'm literally forgetting the names of everyday acquaintances because I'm learning and retaining so much new stuff.
The problem, from an individual's perspective is that, while you can stand on the shoulders of giants, you can't easily commandeer all that brain-power.
I'm imagining getting some time-slices of Terry Tao, Geoff Hinton, <insert other big brain names> 's cognition to devote to my own projects. What would that even look like?
On a different note, if we really could mind-meld, could we ever truly hate or kill each other?
I just started reading the Nexus trilogy by Ramez Naam (http://rameznaam.com/nexus/). It's quite good so far, and explores some of these concepts from a sci-fi bent.
"In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them -"
"You beat them." For a moment she was not afraid of his understanding.
"No, you don't understand. I destroy them. I make it impossible for them to ever hurt me again. I grind them and grind them until they don't exist."
Ender & Valentine, Ch. 13: Valentine
Ender's catchy and interesting, but I don't think it would play out that way.
Imagine that at the moment you fully understand your adversary you also fully understand others like yourself. The hurt that lead to the desire to never be harmed again. The harm that this kind of mentality inflicts. All the victims of your proposed victory. ...
I mean, it's a hell of a quote, but at a certain point he just stops the recursion for bad-ass conclusion.
It's amazing how fast we can learn now, fuelled by information-sharing over the internet. I'm literally forgetting the names of everyday acquaintances because I'm learning and retaining so much new stuff.
The problem, from an individual's perspective is that, while you can stand on the shoulders of giants, you can't easily commandeer all that brain-power.
I'm imagining getting some time-slices of Terry Tao, Geoff Hinton, <insert other big brain names> 's cognition to devote to my own projects. What would that even look like?
On a different note, if we really could mind-meld, could we ever truly hate or kill each other?