Hi Ben and others, Let's analyse the opensource vs closed-source issue in more detail... (limericks are not arugments!)
1. I guess the biggest turn-off about opensource is that it may allow competitors to look at our source and steal our ideas / algorithms. I'm aware of this but I still advocate opensource, 'cause I think the situation here is *special*. AGI is an exceptionally hard problem and we do not have enough people (researchers and programmers). Opensource will allow us to recruit people *much* more easily since a lot of people can look at our stuff and decide whether they like it or not. Thus, we'll be able to work less hard and achieve the same goal. The problem of "copycats stealing our ideas" becomes insignificant once people realize how hard the whole deal is. When there's so much innovative work to be done, people are less likely to take the trouble of starting clones. Moreover, the business model I propose tries to make it easier for people to contribute and make modifications. I guess one reason why people start new projects is that they are *dissatisfied* with existing ones. 2. Let's not use the "opensource will lead to 'bad' singularity" line of arguments, cause that's rather unrealistic and unprofessional. Quite the contrary, an AGI-for-the-masses scenario is much less likely to become catastrophic than an oligarchic / totalitarian one. The bottomline is that we cannot use AGI to "save humanity" anymore than we can "save all the species in the ecosystem". AGI will improve the lives of "many" people, and that's the best we can do. Basing a company's mission on false arguments may drive potential partners away. Moreover, because of self-deceptive thinking you may miss some good alternatives. 3. Note that I'm not advocating for free-AGI. The two things that I most care about are: a) my own pay / company shares; and b) I hope our project will have the biggest market share. 4. If you have really good AGI ideas, they will get a lot of shares in the new project. So there's no need to panic! [ PS Please don't use stereotypes like "assimilation" or "borg" on me. I'm not intent on making humanity a homogeneous race without diversity. People often make those assumptions because of my weird look or that I'm Chinese =( ] YKY ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/?member_id=231415&user_secret=e9e40a7e
