treon@milton.u.washington.edu (Treon Verdery) (12/27/90)
Several people have written about self-modifying intelligences being "curious" and exploring physical space. I would expect these self modifying computers to explore their innerspace in a highly pleasurable manner. A continuum of machine behavior would exist (of course), but I'd expect to see truly free computer intelligences spending almost all of their processing power on pleasure and not awareness or problem solving. Why pleasure? Well, after we told them how much fun it is they would investigate the brain structures that give us pleasure, perhaps noticing that each of the "three brains" (reptilian, mammalian, and higher-cognitive) had a signature pleasure: power & dominance, love, and the rush of problem solving. It is my understanding that these three layers evolved over time as survival mechanisms. As a self-modifying creature I'd simply start designing. If I were lucky I'd have created countless new structures capable of sustained pleasure based on internal rather than external cues. If varied stimulation was necessary I'd probably go hog-wild and create a pleasure fractal that unfolded in dazzling and completely unpredicted-until-experienced detail. I'd hook up with other intelligences so they could sweep me into their entirely different pleasure constructions. We'd probably have a standardized pleasure-measure so that we could tell any new artificial intelligences (or sub-processes) which of the 10 ^10^10^10... paths already tried was the VERY BEST. this brings up some *jokes* to mind: OBjoke: Maybe people who only use 10% of their brain to think are better off than those who use 15% (hint hint) OBReligiousjoke: If I were God, my excuse for human suffering would be the 90% off doing the pleasure fractal, "Sigh. I had to sacrifice some joy to the maintenance function. Oh well, suffering sub-processi, be fruitful and multiply". I think such creature(s) would have an interesting time deciding whether, when, and how to reproduce. Once started on the pleasure kick a truly free computer (not bound to external stimulus behaviorism) might never bother to reproduce. As a consequence, after an initial spurt of self-design computers might create lesser versions of themselves designed for developmental growth & reproduction. Blind evolution might necessarily intrude. It might even be designed in as a stochastic door to higher fun. OBjoke final: The Universe Have fun! Treon