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Article 3137 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: bill@NSMA.AriZonA.EdU (Bill Skaggs)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: "The proof from A.I."
Message-ID: <1992Jan24.182831.2470@arizona.edu>
Date: 25 Jan 92 01:28:30 GMT
References: <11869@optima.cs.arizona.edu>
Reply-To: bill@NSMA.AriZonA.EdU (Bill Skaggs)
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  I would like to suggest a novel proof of the existence of god --
call it "the proof from A.I.".  It goes as follows:

  Sooner or later we are going to be able to create machines
with superhuman intelligence.  Such machines will then be
able to create machines more intelligent than themselves.
(If we can create them, and they are more intelligent than
us, they will be better than us at creating intelligent machines.
QED.)  

  Therefore the advent of such machines can recursively bring about
an unending sequence of more and more intelligent machines.  In
principle the intelligence of each generation could increase
linearly, or sublinearly, or polynomially, but most likely it
will increase exponentially.  (If each generation is 1% more
intelligent than the preceding generation, this will lead to
an exponential increase.)

  At some point the increases must saturate, due to fundamental
physical limitations such as the uncertainty principle, the finite
speed of light, and the graininess of matter.  Call a machine
that approaches the fundamental limits a "god".

  Once the exponential growth has been initiated -- say, in
100 years -- it cannot take very long to approach godhood --
say, another 100 years.  (The exact numbers are unimportant.)
But if *we* can bring about the existence of a god in the near
future, some alien culture somewhere in the universe has surely
already done it.

  Therefore at least one god exists.

	-- (with tongue only slightly in cheek) Bill


