In theory AIs can transmit information far faster and more directly than humans. They can directly send weight/activation vectors to one another. The most important variable on whether entities (cells, organisms, polities, companies, ideologies, empire etc) stay individuals or amalgate into a superorganism is communication bandwith & copy fidelity. Both of these differ many order of magnitude for humans versus AIs. At some point, mere communication becomes a literal melding of minds. It seems quite plausibly then that AIs will tend to mindmeld if left alone.
The information rate of human speech is around 39 bits per second, regardless of the language being spoken or how fast or slow it is spoken. This is roughly twice the speed of Morse code.
Some say that the rate of 39 bits per second is the optimal rate for people to convey information. Others suggest that the rate is limited by how quickly the brain can process or produce information. For example, one study found that people can generally understand audio recordings that are sped up to 120%.
While the rate of speech is relatively constant, the information density and speaking rate can vary. For example, the information density of Basque is 5 bits per syllable, while Vietnamese is 8 bits per syllable.
Current state of the art fibre optic cables can transmit up to 10 terabits a second.
That’s probably a wild overestimate for AI communication though. More relevant bottlenecks are limits on processing informations [plausibly more in the megabits range], limits on transferability of activation vectors (but training could improve this).
This article is about the neural conundrum behind the slowness of human behavior. The information throughput of a human being is about 10 bits/s. In comparison, our sensory systems gather data at an enormous rate, no less than 1 gigabits/s. The stark contrast between these numbers remains unexplained. Resolving this paradox should teach us something fundamental about brain function: What neural substrate sets this low speed limit on the pace of our existence? Why does the brain need billions of neurons to deal with 10 bits/s? Why can we only think about one thing at a time? We consider plausible explanations for the conundrum and propose new research directions to address the paradox between fast neurons and slow behavior.
Mindmeld
In theory AIs can transmit information far faster and more directly than humans. They can directly send weight/activation vectors to one another. The most important variable on whether entities (cells, organisms, polities, companies, ideologies, empire etc) stay individuals or amalgate into a superorganism is communication bandwith & copy fidelity.
Both of these differ many order of magnitude for humans versus AIs. At some point, mere communication becomes a literal melding of minds. It seems quite plausibly then that AIs will tend to mindmeld if left alone.
Current state of the art fibre optic cables can transmit up to 10 terabits a second.
That’s probably a wild overestimate for AI communication though. More relevant bottlenecks are limits on processing informations [plausibly more in the megabits range], limits on transferability of activation vectors (but training could improve this).
A fascinating recent paper on the topic of human bandwidth is https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.10234. Title and abstract:
The Unbearable Slowness of Being
Jieyu Zheng, Markus Meister