Another problem is how to judge the impressiveness of a demo, especially if you're a non expert. It's relatively easy to come up with superficially impressive demos, which then turn out upon closer investigation to be fraught with problems or just not scalable. This seems to happen all the time with robotics and computer vision, as countless humanoids show.
So I think you're right. The big money only arrives once most of the research problems have been hammered out and a working prototype is available for inspection. Funding might appear earlier only if the organisations involved are suitably convinced that (a) the promised technology is going to arrive in the near future and (b) that there is a strong first mover advantage to owning or influencing that technology. It may, as Ben says, be possible to ameliorate some of the costs using open source methods. Open source is not a panacea, but it could help to turn AGI into more of a science than an art form in that it permits experiments to be independently verified with greater ease and provides more opportunities to "stand on the shoulders of giants". On 18/04/2008, Pei Wang <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > PREMISES: > > (1) AGI is one of the most complicated problem in the history of > science, and therefore requires substantial funding for it to happen. > > (2) Since all previous attempts failed, investors and funding agencies > have enough reason to wait until a recognizable breakthrough to put > their money in. > > (3) Since the people who have the money are usually not AGI > researchers (so won't read papers and books), a breakthrough becomes > recognizable to them only by impressive demos. > > (4) If the system is really general-purpose, then if it can give an > impressive demo on one problem, it should be able to solve all kinds > of problems to roughly the same level. > > (5) If a system already can solve all kinds of problems, then the > research has mostly finished, and won't need funding anymore. > > CONCLUSION: AGI research will get funding when and only when the > funding is no longer needed anymore. > > Q.E.D. :-( > > Pei > > ------------------------------------------- > agi > Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now > RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ > Modify Your Subscription: http://www.listbox.com/member/?&; > Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com > ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: http://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: http://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=101455710-f059c4 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
