He called it “self-feeding co-evolution”. His description of the concept starts 31 minutes in.
His description of how computers help to design the next generation of computers starts 36 minutes in. He also uses the term “take off”.
If you have much of an understanding of this sort of thing, a lot of the material on this site about rapid transitions and the associated risks appears to be a confused muddle—based on misunderstandings of the history of the field (my more charitable interpretation). Dawkins is correct about the issue. We have actually been seeing self-improvement for millennia now.
I’ve been explaining this point here for a while now. IMO, nobody seems to have a coherent critique. Some people persist in taking this kind of material seriously—but the reason seems to be that they haven’t thought things through properly.
Dawkins understood the self-improving nature of modern computer technology in 1991 - see his lecture:
The Genesis of Purpose.
He called it “self-feeding co-evolution”. His description of the concept starts 31 minutes in.
His description of how computers help to design the next generation of computers starts 36 minutes in. He also uses the term “take off”.
If you have much of an understanding of this sort of thing, a lot of the material on this site about rapid transitions and the associated risks appears to be a confused muddle—based on misunderstandings of the history of the field (my more charitable interpretation). Dawkins is correct about the issue. We have actually been seeing self-improvement for millennia now.
I’ve been explaining this point here for a while now. IMO, nobody seems to have a coherent critique. Some people persist in taking this kind of material seriously—but the reason seems to be that they haven’t thought things through properly.