I think there’s a question of how we create an adequate model of the world for this idea to work. It’s probably not practical to build one by hand, so we’d likely need to hand the task over to an AI.
Might it be possible to use the modelling module of an AI in the absence of the planning module? (or with a weak planning module) If so, you might be able to feed it a great deal of data about the universe, and construct a model that could then be “frozen” and used as the basis for the AI’s “virtual universe.”
I think there’s a question of how we create an adequate model of the world
Generally, we don’t. A model of the (idealised) computational process of the AI is very simple compared with the real world, and the rest of the model just needs to include enough detail for the problem we’re working on.
In the example of curing cancer, your computational model of the universe would need to include a complete model of every molecule of every cell in the human body, and how it interacts under every possible set of conditions. The simpler you make the model, the more you risk cutting off all of the good solutions with your assumptions (or accidentally creation false solutions due to your shortcuts). And that’s just for medical questions.
I don’t think it’s going to be possible for an unaided human to construct a model like that for a very long time, and possibly not ever.
Indeed (see my comment on the problem with simplified model being unsolved).
However, it’s a different kind of problem to standard FAI (it’s “simply” a question of getting a precise enough model, and not a philosophically open problem), and there are certainly simpler versions that are tractable.
I think there’s a question of how we create an adequate model of the world for this idea to work. It’s probably not practical to build one by hand, so we’d likely need to hand the task over to an AI.
Might it be possible to use the modelling module of an AI in the absence of the planning module? (or with a weak planning module) If so, you might be able to feed it a great deal of data about the universe, and construct a model that could then be “frozen” and used as the basis for the AI’s “virtual universe.”
Generally, we don’t. A model of the (idealised) computational process of the AI is very simple compared with the real world, and the rest of the model just needs to include enough detail for the problem we’re working on.
But that might be quite a lot of detail!
In the example of curing cancer, your computational model of the universe would need to include a complete model of every molecule of every cell in the human body, and how it interacts under every possible set of conditions. The simpler you make the model, the more you risk cutting off all of the good solutions with your assumptions (or accidentally creation false solutions due to your shortcuts). And that’s just for medical questions.
I don’t think it’s going to be possible for an unaided human to construct a model like that for a very long time, and possibly not ever.
Indeed (see my comment on the problem with simplified model being unsolved).
However, it’s a different kind of problem to standard FAI (it’s “simply” a question of getting a precise enough model, and not a philosophically open problem), and there are certainly simpler versions that are tractable.