Thank you for your response. Having thought about it for a while, I think he is wrong. (Whether he is a crank is a different issue, probably not worth worrying about)
I think it can be illustrated with the following example:
Suppose you are writing a computer program to find the fastest route between two cities and the computer program must select between two possibilities: Take the express highway or take local roads. A naive interpretation of Wissner-Gross’ approach would be to take the local roads because that gives you more options. However this would not seem to be the more intelligent choice in general. So a naive interpretation of the Wissner-Gross approach appears to be basically a heuristic—useful in some situations but not others.
But is this interpretation of Wissner-Gross’s approach correct? I expect he would say “no,” that taking the express highway actually entails more options because you get to your destination quicker, resulting in extra time which can be used to pursue other activities. Which is fine, but it seems to me that this is circular reasoning. Of course the more intelligent choice will result in more time, money, energy, health, or whatever, and these things give you more options. But this observation tells us nothing about how to actually achieve intelligence. It’s like the investment guru who tells us to “buy low sell high.” He’s stating the obvious without imparting anything of substance.
I admit it’s possible I have misunderstood Wissner-Gross’ claims. Is he saying anything deeper than what I have pointed out?
Thank you for your response. Having thought about it for a while, I think he is wrong. (Whether he is a crank is a different issue, probably not worth worrying about)
I think it can be illustrated with the following example:
Suppose you are writing a computer program to find the fastest route between two cities and the computer program must select between two possibilities: Take the express highway or take local roads. A naive interpretation of Wissner-Gross’ approach would be to take the local roads because that gives you more options. However this would not seem to be the more intelligent choice in general. So a naive interpretation of the Wissner-Gross approach appears to be basically a heuristic—useful in some situations but not others.
But is this interpretation of Wissner-Gross’s approach correct? I expect he would say “no,” that taking the express highway actually entails more options because you get to your destination quicker, resulting in extra time which can be used to pursue other activities. Which is fine, but it seems to me that this is circular reasoning. Of course the more intelligent choice will result in more time, money, energy, health, or whatever, and these things give you more options. But this observation tells us nothing about how to actually achieve intelligence. It’s like the investment guru who tells us to “buy low sell high.” He’s stating the obvious without imparting anything of substance.
I admit it’s possible I have misunderstood Wissner-Gross’ claims. Is he saying anything deeper than what I have pointed out?