Interestingly, Tor's online Reactor Magazine had an artile called "The Rat Race: Augmented Intelligence in Science Fiction From Algernon Onward", yesterday, here:
(Note: I had to post my comments paragraph by paragraph for some strange reason.)
Long story short: I think you're unto something, as the classic SF stories "Flowers for Algernon" and "Camp Concentration" focus on a limited part of intelligence, not the (possible) vastness of it.
A vast mind, I think, would not focus on the--very deep--details alone, but maintain the big picture and the long-term consequences, meaning it's more likely to be benevolent.
Having said that, I suspect the vastness of the future mind is mostly limited to the bandwidth of its internal connections (the speed of light is the ultimate limitation), meaning the vaster the mind, the slower its thoughts.
Thanks for the comment; I went and read the Reactor Rat Race article (and have much to say about it)- but to make it short, I think I am addressing precisely the elephant in the room when I define vastness as: … when the continuous level of interest and intelligence in the system outpaces the level of cogitation of the given.” I believe that most of the issues pointed at in the mentioned books are exactly that – cogitation of the given – an obsession with that which is (the universe as it is now, about which we, from the vantage point of our little backwater rock, know precious little- not to mention the fact that all our speculation concerning intelligence and consciousness are based on one example only -us).
Vastness, I understand as an expanded intelligence consciousness that by necessity, becomes benevolent just because of the hyperconnectivity of all discrete phenomena.
As an aside, I believe that superintelligence (vast Intelligence), whether achieved via a hybrid sentient merging with thinking machines – a cyborgization soft process – or a cognitive breakthrough (nano-chemical-neuro induced or otherwise), is inherently beneficial.
I once started to write a SF novel called VAST—
never finished it.
I did finish writing a short story called 'Algorithm for flowers' though.
Good to know Meika, I am writing it these very days, Vast-ness came up as a name for the novel, but I think that I will wait and see how it develops.
I like to hand my projects on: for example I had a tarot card project but look ! a friend take sit over and WOW
https://broccolimag.com/products/the-mushroom-oracle-44-card-deck-guidebook?variant=43498657087745
Interestingly, Tor's online Reactor Magazine had an artile called "The Rat Race: Augmented Intelligence in Science Fiction From Algernon Onward", yesterday, here:
https://reactormag.com/the-rat-race-augmented-intelligence-in-science-fiction-from-algernon-onward/
(Note: I had to post my comments paragraph by paragraph for some strange reason.)
Long story short: I think you're unto something, as the classic SF stories "Flowers for Algernon" and "Camp Concentration" focus on a limited part of intelligence, not the (possible) vastness of it.
A vast mind, I think, would not focus on the--very deep--details alone, but maintain the big picture and the long-term consequences, meaning it's more likely to be benevolent.
Having said that, I suspect the vastness of the future mind is mostly limited to the bandwidth of its internal connections (the speed of light is the ultimate limitation), meaning the vaster the mind, the slower its thoughts.
But we're very far away from that...;-)
Looking forward to your follow-up thoughts.
Thanks for the comment; I went and read the Reactor Rat Race article (and have much to say about it)- but to make it short, I think I am addressing precisely the elephant in the room when I define vastness as: … when the continuous level of interest and intelligence in the system outpaces the level of cogitation of the given.” I believe that most of the issues pointed at in the mentioned books are exactly that – cogitation of the given – an obsession with that which is (the universe as it is now, about which we, from the vantage point of our little backwater rock, know precious little- not to mention the fact that all our speculation concerning intelligence and consciousness are based on one example only -us).
Vastness, I understand as an expanded intelligence consciousness that by necessity, becomes benevolent just because of the hyperconnectivity of all discrete phenomena.
As an aside, I believe that superintelligence (vast Intelligence), whether achieved via a hybrid sentient merging with thinking machines – a cyborgization soft process – or a cognitive breakthrough (nano-chemical-neuro induced or otherwise), is inherently beneficial.
https://medium.com/becoming-human/becoming-a-cyborg-should-be-taken-gently-of-modern-bio-paleo-machines-cyborgology-b6c65436e416