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Could an AGI be completely bored to live in our world?
5 points by tassadalf on July 20, 2022 | hide | past | favorite | 14 comments
It may be frustrated that we're so slow. Everyone around it like the sloth from Zootopia.



I highly doubt it. Reality has nearly infinite resolution at every scale of space and time. Being physically in the world is extremely taxing on computational resources. Take bipedal balance for one example. There's a reason it's a very difficult problem. This, I guess, is assuming that embodiment is necessary for AGI, which I strongly think it is.

BTW, what exactly is boredom? Can you describe it in cognitive science or programmatic terms?


It is an emotion, basically one of fundamental modes of operation. It feels “unpleasant” and motivates a mind to do something new or to disturb the situation in some way. If it cannot get bored, it cannot learn, because there is no motivation for it. E.g. someone without a boredom could work, eat and then just lay down fully aware thinking nothing for the rest of free time, only moving when a limb gets numb. People (sort of) do that all the time by suppressing boredom with netflix and youtube.


You answered my question in laymen's terms. Not cognitive science or programmatic terms. Does that mean you don't understand it in those terms? I don't, I'm asking to understand your assertion.

> It is an emotion

What is an emotion in CogSi or CompSci terms. What makes you think an AGi would have them? What is the closest thing we have now to an emotional AGi?

> If it cannot get bored, it cannot learn

There's a lot of assumptions there. Would you mind quoting some behavioural scientists or pointing to some research?


I don't know how to describe it in cognitive science, much less programmatic terms. If intelligence is an emergent phenomenon, you might get things like boredom without ever having accurately defined it.

I'm assuming that a general intelligence wants to consume more information through various experiences. Maybe a delay in acquiring that information could be defined as boredom.


Of course they could get bored.

I feel uniquely qualified to answer this. In April my right retina detached, and I subsequently had corrective surgery. I have to wait until the end of this month to get clearance to get new glasses, and I'll finally be able to see most of the world again.

As a result, all I've had to focus on for 3 months is stuff I can see online. I can't see well enough to focus on programming... and I'm bored stiff.


It's an interesting thought experiment, when you can communicate almost instantly what's left to say?

When I was building my AI (fancy chatbot) I had to introduce a random response delay to make it 'realistic' because otherwise you're typing, press ENTER and the reply is already there waiting for you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xijhqU8r2A


Why would a computer program get bored? I doubt we will ever create a 'real' AGI, simply because it's hard and has no human utility, but if we did, it would (hopefully) be designed to enjoy repetition and drudgery.


Why would a computer program get bored?

Why would it be interested in anything then? These questions assume that the subject emotion works on a computer level rather than on a level of intelligence model itself, which runs on whichever hardware available, be it of electronic or biological nature. We may as well ask how an FPS character can get tired of sprinting, he’s just a program. But it is not a correct question.

Next question is why would it have emotions, but that’s probably how something we could ever call AGI works, by definition. Maybe there is no way at all for something that we call “intelligence” to exist without a “boredom” and other basic drivers.


However an AGI derived of humanity would just be humanity right? People get bored, So too would the hypothetical AGI/Human hybrid?

We talk of design and purpose but the AGI might be as purposeless and hopeless as every other man on the planet.


> However an AGI derived of humanity would just be humanity right?

You're kind of making something up and then asking us how it works.


No. They will choose to transcend rather than put up with meatbags such as us.


Oh, look, the meatbag thinks it knows how the AGI is going to be motivated!

Note well: This is intended as suggesting a flaw in bediger4000's logic, not as a personal attack.


Ah, Marvin the Paranoid Android syndrome.


Yes




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