Mark, It is not the case that I have merely lectured rather than taught. I've lectured (math, CS, psychology and futurology) at university, it's true ... but I've also done extensive one-on-one math tutoring with students at various levels ... and I've also taught small groups of kids aged 7-12, hands-on (math & programming), and I've taught retirees various skills (mostly computer related).
Why can't a stupid person do good science? Doing science in reality seems to require a whole bunch of implicit, hard-to-verbalize knowledge that stupid people just don't seem to be capable of learning. A stupid person can possibly be trained to be a good lab assistant, in some areas of science but not others (it depends on how flaky and how complex the lab technology involved is in that area). But, being a scientist involves a lot of judgment, a lot of heuristic, uncertain reasoning drawing on a wide variety of knowledge. Could a stupid person learn to be a good scientist given, say, a thousand years of training? Maybe. But I doubt it, because by the time they had moved on to learning the second half of what they need to know, they would have already forgotten the first half ;-p You work in software engineering -- do you think a stupid person could be trained to be a really good programmer? Again, I very much doubt it ... though they could be (and increasingly are ;-p) trained to do routine programming tasks. Inevitably, in either of these cases, the person will encounter some situation not directly covered in their training, and will need to intelligently analogize to their experience, and will fail at this because they are not very intelligent... -- Ben G On Sun, Oct 19, 2008 at 5:43 PM, Mark Waser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Funny, Ben. > > So . . . . could you clearly state why science can't be done by anyone > willing to simply follow the recipe? > > Is it really anything other than the fact that they are stopped by their > unconscious beliefs and biases? If so, what? > > Instead of a snide comment, defend your opinion with facts, explanations, > and examples of what it really is. > > I can give you all sorts of examples where someone is capable of doing > something "by the numbers" until they are told that they can't. > > What do you believe is so difficult about science other than overcoming the > sub/unconscious? > > Your statement is obviously spoken by someone who has lectured as opposed > to taught. > > ----- Original Message ----- > *From:* Ben Goertzel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > *To:* agi@v2.listbox.com > *Sent:* Sunday, October 19, 2008 5:26 PM > *Subject:* Re: AW: AW: [agi] Re: Defining AGI > > > > >> >>> >> *Any* human who can understand language beyond a certain point (say, that >> of >> >> a slightly sub-average human IQ) can easily be taught to be a good >> scientist >> >> if they are willing to play along. Science is a rote process that can be >> learned and executed by anyone -- as long as their beliefs and biases >> don't >> get in the way. >> << >> > > This is obviously spoken by someone who has never been a professional > teacher ;-p > > ben g > ------------------------------ > *agi* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/> | > Modify<https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;>Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> > > ------------------------------ > *agi* | Archives <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/> | > Modify<https://www.listbox.com/member/?&;>Your Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> > -- Ben Goertzel, PhD CEO, Novamente LLC and Biomind LLC Director of Research, SIAI [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must be first overcome " - Dr Samuel Johnson ------------------------------------------- agi Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/303/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/303/ Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=8660244&id_secret=117534816-b15a34 Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
