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Do you think intelligence exists without prior experience? For instance, can someone instantly acquire a skill—like playing the piano—as if downloading it in Th

Do you think intelligence exists without prior experience? For instance, can someone instantly acquire a skill—like playing the piano—as if downloading it in The Matrix? Even prodigies like Mozart had prior exposure. His father, a composer and music teacher, introduced him to music from an early age. Does true intelligence require a foundation of prior knowledge?

1659447091 2y ago
Intelligence requires the ability to separate the wheat from the chaff on one's own to create a foundation of knowledge to build on. It is also entirely possible to learn a skill without prior experience. That's how it(whatever skill) was first done
owenpalmer 2y ago
> Does true intelligence require a foundation of prior knowledge? This is the way I think about it. I = E / K where I is the intelligence of the system, E is the effectiveness of the system, and K is the prior knowledge. For example, a math problem is given to two students, each solving the problem with the same effectiveness (both get the correct answer in the same amount of time). However, student A happens to have more prior knowledge of math than student B. In this case, the intelligence of B is greater than the intelligence of A, even though they have the same effectiveness. B was able to "figure out" the math, without using any of the "tricks" that A already knew. Now back to your question of whether or not prior knowledge is required. As K approaches 0, intelligence approaches infinity. But when K=0, intelligence is undefined. Tada! I think that answers your question. Most LLM benchmarks simply measure effectiveness, not intelligence. I conceptualize LLMs as a person with a photographic memory and a low IQ of 85, who was given 100 billion years to learn everything humans have ever created. IK = E low intelligence * vast knowledge = reasonable effectiveness
- patrickhogan1 2y ago
  Thank you for detailing out your thoughts. This is quite a well detailed out argument. In your calculations, in relation to humans, how do you view the 500k - 700k years of learned behaviors and acquired responses passed to offspring?
otabdeveloper4 2y ago
Reducing the broad category of "experience" to "computable functions in the mathematical sense" is quite, hm, reductive.

1659447091 2y ago

Intelligence requires the ability to separate the wheat from the chaff on one's own to create a foundation of knowledge to build on. It is also entirely possible to learn a skill without prior experience. That's how it(whatever skill) was first done

owenpalmer 2y ago

> Does true intelligence require a foundation of prior knowledge? This is the way I think about it. I = E / K where I is the intelligence of the system, E is the effectiveness of the system, and K is the prior knowledge. For example, a math problem is given to two students, each solving the problem with the same effectiveness (both get the correct answer in the same amount of time). However, student A happens to have more prior knowledge of math than student B. In this case, the intelligence of B is greater than the intelligence of A, even though they have the same effectiveness. B was able to "figure out" the math, without using any of the "tricks" that A already knew. Now back to your question of whether or not prior knowledge is required. As K approaches 0, intelligence approaches infinity. But when K=0, intelligence is undefined. Tada! I think that answers your question. Most LLM benchmarks simply measure effectiveness, not intelligence. I conceptualize LLMs as a person with a photographic memory and a low IQ of 85, who was given 100 billion years to learn everything humans have ever created. IK = E low intelligence * vast knowledge = reasonable effectiveness

patrickhogan1 2y ago
Thank you for detailing out your thoughts. This is quite a well detailed out argument. In your calculations, in relation to humans, how do you view the 500k - 700k years of learned behaviors and acquired responses passed to offspring?

otabdeveloper4 2y ago

Reducing the broad category of "experience" to "computable functions in the mathematical sense" is quite, hm, reductive.