Ben, My A.I. group of friends (was: CommonSense Computing Group, and is now more scattered) has been trying to do an open-source development for a set of programs that are working toward human-scale intelligence. For example, Hugo Liu's commonsense reasoning toolkit, ConceptNet, was ported from Python to many other more efficient versions by the internet community at large (and used in many other research projects in our lab and around the world).
Have you thought about releasing your A.G.I. codebase that you mentioned to the general public so that it can be developed by everyone? I, for one, would be interested in downloading it and trying it out. I realize that research software is often not documented or easily digestable, but it seems like one of the most efficient ways to attack the software development problem. Bo On Mon, 11 Dec 2006, Ben Goertzel wrote: ) Hi Joshua, ) ) Thanks for the comments.... ) ) Indeed, the creation of a thinking machine is not a typical VC type ) project. I know a few VC's personally and am well aware of their way ) of thinking and the way thir businesses operate. There is a lot of ) "technology risk" in the creation of an AGI, as compared to the sorts ) of projects that VC's are typical interested in funding today. There ) is just no getting around this fact. From a typical VC perspective, ) building a thinking machine is a project with too much risk and too ) much schedule uncertainty in spite of the obviously huge payoff upon ) success. ) ) Of course, it's always possible a rule-breaking VC could come along ) with an interest in AGI. VC's have funded nanotech projects with a ) 10+ year timescale to product, for example. ) ) Currently our fundraising focus is on: ) ) a) transhumanist angel investors interested in funding the creation of true ) AGI ) ) b) seeking VC money with a view toward funding the rapid construction ) and monetization of software products that are ) -- based on components of our AGI codebase ) -- incremental steps toward AGI. ) ) With regard to b, we are currently working with a business consultant ) to formulate a professional "investor toolkit" to present to ) interested VC's. ) ) Unfortunately, US government grant funding for out-of-the-mainstream ) AGI projects is very hard to come by these days. OTOH, the Chinese ) government has expressed some interest in Novamente, but that funding ) source has some serious issues involved with it, needless to say... ) ) -- Ben G ) ) ) On 12/11/06, Joshua Fox <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: ) > ) > Ben, ) > ) > I saw the video. It's wonderful to see this direct aim at the goal of the ) > positive Singularity. ) > ) > If I could comment from the perspective of the software industry, though ) > without expertise in the problem space, I'd say that there are some phrases ) > in there which would make me, were I a VC, suspicious. (Of course VC's ) > aren't the direct audience, but ultimately someone has to provide the ) > funding you allude to.) ) > ) > When a visionary says that he requires more funding and ten years, this ) > often indicates an unfocused project that will never get on-track. In ) > software projects it is essential to aim for real results, including a beta ) > within a year and multiple added-value-providing versions within ) > approximately 3 years. I think that this is not just investor impatience -- ) > experience shows that software projects planned for a much longer schedule ) > tend to get off-focus. ) > ) > I know that you already realize this, and that you do have the focus; you ) > mention your plans, which I assume include meaningful intermediate ) > achievements in this incredibly challenging and extraordinary task, but this ) > the impression which comes across in the talk. ) > ) > Yours, ) > ) > Joshua ) > ) > ) > ) > 2006/12/11, Ben Goertzel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: ) > > ) > > Hi, ) > > ) > > For anyone who is curious about the talk "Ten Years to the Singularity ) > > (if we Really Really Try)" that I gave at Transvision 2006 last ) > > summer, I have finally gotten around to putting the text of the speech ) > > online: ) > > ) > > http://www.goertzel.org/papers/tenyears.htm ) > > ) > > The video presentation has been online for a while ) > > ) > > video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1615014803486086198 ) > > ) > > (alas, the talking is a bit slow in that one, but that's because the ) > > audience was in Finland and mostly spoke English as a second ) > > language.) But the text may be preferable to those who, like me, hate ) > > watching long videos of people blabbering ;-) ) > > ) > > Questions, comments, arguments and insults (preferably clever ones) ) > welcome... ) > > ) > > -- Ben ) > > ) > > ----- ) > > 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/?list_id=11983 ) > > ) > ) > ________________________________ ) > 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/?list_id=11983 ) ) ----- ) 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/?list_id=11983 ) ----- 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/?list_id=11983
