Well, remember that intelligence (in the form that we would apparently like to develop) evolved as a by product of natural selection. For one thing, our level o

Well, remember that intelligence (in the form that we would apparently like to develop) evolved as a by product of natural selection. For one thing, our level of intelligence only really makes sense once a whole set of other niches have been filled out. Applying a better selection/objective function to an otherwise 'dumb' process would likely drastically reduce the cost to reach a 'solution'.