There's an interesting question about the return on investment for self-improvement. The singularity idea is that after a self-modifying algorithm makes an impr

There's an interesting question about the return on investment for self-improvement. The singularity idea is that after a self-modifying algorithm makes an improvement to itself, it becomes better at improving itself, and hence the next improvement is found more quickly. There's also another aspect though: the first improvement will (by definition) be the easiest to find, and subsequent improvements might get harder and harder to find. This acts to slow down self-improvement. I think it's interesting to consider which of these will dominate in a particular domain, and my own research is related.