1. Mind Is All That Matters: Reasons to Focus on Cognitive Technologies
Eliezer Yudkowsky
Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
singinst.org

2. Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

4. Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

6. Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
(Image from Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

7. Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
Felleman, D.J. and Van Essen, D.C. (1991) Distributed hierarchical processing in primate visual cortex. Cerebral Cortex, 1: 1-47.
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

8. Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

10. "Book smarts" vs. cognition:
"Book smarts" evokes images of:
Calculus
Chess
Memorizing facts
Strict rules in well-understood situations
Other stuff that happens in the brain:
Persuasiveness
Enthusiasm
Empathy
Strategic thinking
Musical talent
Rationality
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

11. The scale of intelligent minds: a parochial view.
Village idiot
Einstein
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

12. The scale of intelligent minds: a parochial view.
Village idiot
Einstein
A more cosmopolitan view:
Village idiot
Chimp Einstein
Mouse
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

13. "Supermen are superthinkers; anything else is a side issue
"Supermen are superthinkers; anything else is a side issue." -- SF author Robert Heinlein
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

15. ©Marlo Steed

17. Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

18. One of these technologies is not like the others...
Artificial Intelligence
Cancer cure
Interplanetary travel
Nanomanufacturing
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

19. Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI
"The influence of animal or vegetable life on matter is infinitely beyond the range of any scientific inquiry hitherto entered on. Its power of directing the motions of moving particles, in the demonstrated daily miracle of our human free-will, and in the growth of generation after generation of plants from a single seed, are infinitely different from any possible result of the fortuitous concurrence of atoms... Modern biologists were coming once more to the acceptance of something and that was a vital principle."
-- Lord Kelvin
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

20. AI Village idiot Chimp Einstein Mouse
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

21. In Every Known Human Culture:
tool making
weapons
grammar
tickling
meal times
mediation of conflicts
dance, singing
personal names
promises
mourning
(Donald E. Brown, Human universals. New York: McGraw-Hill.)
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

22. A complex adaptation must be universal within a species.
(John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, The Psychological Foundations of Culture.
In The Adapted Mind, eds. Barkow, Cosmides, and Tooby.)
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

23. A complex adaptation must be universal within a species.
If: 6 necessary genes
Each at 10% frequency in population
Then: 1 in 1,000,000 have complete adaptation
(John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, The Psychological Foundations of Culture.
In The Adapted Mind, eds. Barkow, Cosmides, and Tooby.)
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

24. Incremental evolution of complexity:
[A] A is advantageous by itself.
[A←B] B depends on A.
[A'↔B] A' replaces A, depends on B.
[A'B←C] C depends on A' and B
...
(John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, The Psychological Foundations of Culture.
In The Adapted Mind, eds. Barkow, Cosmides, and Tooby.)
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

26. The Psychic Unity of Humankind
Complex adaptations
must be universal in a species –
including cognitive machinery
in Homo sapiens!
(John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, The Psychological Foundations of Culture.
In The Adapted Mind, eds. Barkow, Cosmides, and Tooby.)
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

27. Must… not… emote…

28. The Great Failure of Imagination: Anthropomorphism
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

30. Mind Projection Fallacy:
If I am ignorant about a phenomenon,
this is a fact about my state of mind,
not a fact about the phenomenon.
(Jaynes, E.T Probability Theory: The Logic of Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.)
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

33. Minds-in-general Human minds
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

34. Minds-in-general Transhuman mindspace Human minds
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

35. Minds-in-general Posthuman mindspace Transhuman mindspace Human minds
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

36. Minds-in-general Bipping AIs Posthuman mindspace Freepy AIs Gloopy AIs
Transhuman mindspace
Human minds
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

37. Minds-in-general Bipping AIs Posthuman mindspace Freepy AIs Gloopy AIs
Transhuman mindspace
YOU
ARE
HERE
Human minds
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

38. Fallacy of the Giant Cheesecake
Major premise: A superintelligence could create a mile-high cheesecake.
Minor premise: Someone will create a recursively self-improving AI.
Conclusion: The future will be full of giant cheesecakes.
Power does not imply motive.
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

39. Fallacy of the Giant Cheesecake
Major premise: A superintelligence could create a mile-high cheesecake.
Minor premise: Someone will create a recursively self-improving AI.
Conclusion: The future will be full of giant cheesecakes.
Power does not imply motive.
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

40. Minds-in-general Human minds
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

41. Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

42. Minds-in-general YOU ARE HERE
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

43. Minds-in-general YOU ARE HERE
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

44. Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

45. Cognitive Technology Closes the Loop:
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

46. "Intelligence Explosion":
I. J. Good's
"Intelligence Explosion": AI
(Good, I. J Speculations Concerning the First Ultraintelligent Machine.)
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

47. AI Village idiot Chimp Einstein Mouse
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

48. Friendly AI
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

49. Friendly AI
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

50. that impact upon the mind.
Summary:
Intelligence supports all human abilities
Technology comes from intelligence
Whatever impacts intelligence lifts the tree by its roots
>H equals >H mind
Cognitive technology opens vast new regions of mind design space
Technology improving intelligence closes the loop - positive feedback!
To grasp the future,
focus on technologies
that impact upon the mind.
Eliezer Yudkowsky Singularity Institute for AI

51. Mind Is All That Matters
Eliezer Yudkowsky
Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
singinst.org