I think some caveats and asterisks need to be added to the claim that humanity is far more intelligent than a single human.
In some domains (such as breadth of knowledge, or ability-to-design-complicated-machines-with-many-parts-like-rockets, humanity >> the best humans.
However, in other domains, such as long-horizon coherence/agency, ability to prioritize between projects/goals, ability to converge to the truth on certain controversial or emotionally loaded subjects, and thinking speed, humanity is arguably < the average human, and certainly << the best humans in those domains.
Case in point: Humanity is currently on a path to destroy itself by building unaligned AGI. Previously it narrowly avoided destroying itself via nuclear war. I don’t know about the average human, but I’m confident that e.g. the top 1% most sensible/wise/competent humans would have been able to easily avoid both problems, on a desert island containing only a handful of such humans + the relevant weaponry and supercomputers and code.
I think some caveats and asterisks need to be added to the claim that humanity is far more intelligent than a single human.
In some domains (such as breadth of knowledge, or ability-to-design-complicated-machines-with-many-parts-like-rockets, humanity >> the best humans.
However, in other domains, such as long-horizon coherence/agency, ability to prioritize between projects/goals, ability to converge to the truth on certain controversial or emotionally loaded subjects, and thinking speed, humanity is arguably < the average human, and certainly << the best humans in those domains.
Case in point: Humanity is currently on a path to destroy itself by building unaligned AGI. Previously it narrowly avoided destroying itself via nuclear war. I don’t know about the average human, but I’m confident that e.g. the top 1% most sensible/wise/competent humans would have been able to easily avoid both problems, on a desert island containing only a handful of such humans + the relevant weaponry and supercomputers and code.
Thank you! I wholeheartedly agree to be honest. I’ve added a footnote to the claim, linking and quoting your comment. Are you comfortable with this?
Sure, thanks!