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Simulating evolution could also be called brute force. Doing that at a scale comparable to our own evolutionary history may be way out of range for present comp

Simulating evolution could also be called brute force. Doing that at a scale comparable to our own evolutionary history may be way out of range for present computers, but not foreseeable ones. (http://e-drexler.com/d/06/00/Nanosystems/ch1/chapter1_1.html http://e-drexler.com/d/06/00/Nanosystems/ch1/chapter1_1.html) Likely we'll get there sooner in some not-quite-so-brutish way -- I'd hope so for ethical reasons -- but that way is available.

adrianN 9y ago
There is no reason to assume that evolution always brings about intelligent live. Anything "higher" on the ladder than bacteria could very well be an aberration that only arose due to very specific circumstances on prehistoric Earth.
- perl4ever 9y ago
  I think we have more than a sample of one instance to look at though. The distinctive thing about humans is more that we operated collectively according to social rules, than pure intelligence.* Due to evolution, the coordination of individual entities has happened repeatedly. Individual molecules became living cells, some suggest living cells merged into cells with mitochondria, viruses and cells merged, single cells merged into multicellular organisms, insects organized into social colonies, and now primates, i.e. humans have also organized into social colonies. This doesn't prove evolution always creates social multicellular life, but it means (IMO) there is a clear pattern that provides a reason to assume it does short of specific reasoning or evidence about a barrier - why should the bacterial level be unique, and which bacteria would be the highest level?. *I don't think you can separate intelligence from a social context. What we think of intelligence is closely related to things like the willingness to give up current rewards for long term ones. But it's not "smart" to do that unless you have justified faith that you live in a stable society where people are trusted to follow social rules.
  - abecedarius 9y ago
    There are a couple of most plausibly hard steps: the origin of life up to just before bacteria split from archaea, and the origin of eukaryotes, which happened just once after something like 2 billion years. But I had in mind something cheaper more like scaling up the idea of http://www.karlsims.com/evolved-virtual-creatures.html http://www.karlsims.com/evolved-virtual-creatures.html. Intelligence has evolved in animals as unrelated as octopi and us.
- bobcostas55 9y ago
  In an artificial setting you can manipulate the conditions to favour whatever you want.

adrianN 9y ago

There is no reason to assume that evolution always brings about intelligent live. Anything "higher" on the ladder than bacteria could very well be an aberration that only arose due to very specific circumstances on prehistoric Earth.

perl4ever 9y ago
I think we have more than a sample of one instance to look at though. The distinctive thing about humans is more that we operated collectively according to social rules, than pure intelligence.* Due to evolution, the coordination of individual entities has happened repeatedly. Individual molecules became living cells, some suggest living cells merged into cells with mitochondria, viruses and cells merged, single cells merged into multicellular organisms, insects organized into social colonies, and now primates, i.e. humans have also organized into social colonies. This doesn't prove evolution always creates social multicellular life, but it means (IMO) there is a clear pattern that provides a reason to assume it does short of specific reasoning or evidence about a barrier - why should the bacterial level be unique, and which bacteria would be the highest level?. *I don't think you can separate intelligence from a social context. What we think of intelligence is closely related to things like the willingness to give up current rewards for long term ones. But it's not "smart" to do that unless you have justified faith that you live in a stable society where people are trusted to follow social rules.
- abecedarius 9y ago
  There are a couple of most plausibly hard steps: the origin of life up to just before bacteria split from archaea, and the origin of eukaryotes, which happened just once after something like 2 billion years. But I had in mind something cheaper more like scaling up the idea of http://www.karlsims.com/evolved-virtual-creatures.html http://www.karlsims.com/evolved-virtual-creatures.html. Intelligence has evolved in animals as unrelated as octopi and us.
bobcostas55 9y ago
In an artificial setting you can manipulate the conditions to favour whatever you want.