J. Andrew Rogers wrote:
On Apr 6, 2008, at 9:38 AM, Ben Goertzel wrote:
That's surely part of it ... but investors have put big $$ into much
LESS
mature projects in areas such as nanotech and quantum computing.
This is because nanotech and quantum computing can be readily and
easily packaged as straightforward physical machinery technology,
which a lot of people can readily conceptualize even if they do not
actually understand it.
AGI too will be on physical machinery. I dare think I am smarter than
the average bear but quantum computing makes my head hurt. From what I
have read about the field I doubt we are much closer to workable general
quantum computing than we are to AGI. AGI makes a lot more conceptual
and somewhat detailed sense to me. Nanotech itself has difficulty
getting many takers for acheiving full molecular nanotech. Sometimes I
have the paranoid idea that the difference is that things that are too
disruptive have a MUCH harder time getting funding.
AGI is not a physical touchable technology in the same sense (or even
software sense), which is further aggravated by the many irrational
memes of woo-ness that surround the idea of consciousness,
intelligence, spirituality that the vast majority of investors
uncritically subscribe to.
As investors generally seem a hard-headed lot about investment dollars I
would be surprised if this is a large factor. I do think there is a
"yuk-factor" or a xenophobia of the utterly unknown at work when
considering funding of highly disruptive utterly game-changing
technology. I have been in conferences of futurists no less where over
70% of the audience raises their hand that they would likely not avail
themselves of immortality if it was immediately available! The
conservative preservation of the known goes a lot deeper than we credit.
- samantha
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singularity
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