The Nonlinear Library LW - Rapid capability gain around supergenius level seems probable even without intelligence needing to improve intelligence by Towards Keeperhood
May 6, 2024
10:02
Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Rapid capability gain around supergenius level seems probable even without intelligence needing to improve intelligence, published by Towards Keeperhood on May 6, 2024 on LessWrong.
TLDR:
1. Around Einstein-level, relatively small changes in intelligence can lead to large changes in what one is capable to accomplish.
1. E.g. Einstein was a bit better than the other best physi at seeing deep connections and reasoning, but was able to accomplish much more in terms of impressive scientific output.
2. There are architectures where small changes can have significant effects on intelligence.
1. E.g. small changes in human-brain-hyperparameters: Einstein's brain didn't need to be trained on 3x the compute than normal physics professors for him to become much better at forming deep understanding, even without intelligence improving intelligence.
Einstein and the heavytail of human intelligence
1905 is often described as the "annus mirabilis" of Albert Einstein. He founded quantum physics by postulating the existence of (light) quanta, explained Brownian motion, introduced the special relativity theory and derived E=mc from it. All of this. In one year. While having a full-time job in the Swiss patent office.
With the exception of John von Neumann, we'd say those discoveries alone seem more than any other scientist of the 20th century achieved in their lifetime (though it's debatable).
Though perhaps
even more impressive is that Einstein was able to derive general relativity.
Einstein was often so far ahead of his time that even years after he published his theories the majority of physicists rejected them because they couldn't understand them, sometimes even though there was experimental evidence favoring Einstein's theories. After solving the greatest open physics problems at the time in 1905, he continued working in the patent office until 1908, since the universities were too slow on the uptake to hire him earlier.
Example for how far ahead of his time Einstein was: Deriving the theory of light quanta
The following section is based on parts of the 8th chapter of "Surfaces and Essences" by Douglas Hofstadter. For an analysis of some of Einstein's discoveries, which show how far ahead of his time he was, I can recommend reading it.
At the time, one of the biggest problems in physics was the "Blackbody spectrum", which describes the spectrum of electromagnetic wavelengths emitted by a Blackbody. The problem with it was that the emitted spectrum was not explainable by known physics. Einstein achieved a breakthrough by considering light not just as a wave, but also as light quanta. Although this idea sufficiently explained the Blackbody spectrum, physicists (at least almost) unanimously rejected it.
The fight between the "light is corpuscles" and "light is a wave" faction had been decided a century ago, with a clear victory for the "wave" faction.
Being aware of these possible doubts, Einstein proposed three experiments to prove his idea, one of which was the photoelectric effect. In the following years, Robert Millikan carried out various experiments on the photoelectric effect, which all confirmed Einstein's predictions. Still, Millikan insisted that the light-quanta theory had no theoretical basis and even falsely claimed that Einstein himself did not believe in his idea anymore.
From Surfaces and Essences (p.611):
To add insult to injury, although the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Albert Einstein, it was not for his theory of light quanta but "for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect".
Weirdly, in the citation there was no mention of the ideas behind that law, since no one on the Nobel Committee (or in all of physics) believed in them! [1][...] And thus Albert Einstein's revolutionary ideas on the nature of light, that most fundamental and all-...
TLDR:
1. Around Einstein-level, relatively small changes in intelligence can lead to large changes in what one is capable to accomplish.
1. E.g. Einstein was a bit better than the other best physi at seeing deep connections and reasoning, but was able to accomplish much more in terms of impressive scientific output.
2. There are architectures where small changes can have significant effects on intelligence.
1. E.g. small changes in human-brain-hyperparameters: Einstein's brain didn't need to be trained on 3x the compute than normal physics professors for him to become much better at forming deep understanding, even without intelligence improving intelligence.
Einstein and the heavytail of human intelligence
1905 is often described as the "annus mirabilis" of Albert Einstein. He founded quantum physics by postulating the existence of (light) quanta, explained Brownian motion, introduced the special relativity theory and derived E=mc from it. All of this. In one year. While having a full-time job in the Swiss patent office.
With the exception of John von Neumann, we'd say those discoveries alone seem more than any other scientist of the 20th century achieved in their lifetime (though it's debatable).
Though perhaps
even more impressive is that Einstein was able to derive general relativity.
Einstein was often so far ahead of his time that even years after he published his theories the majority of physicists rejected them because they couldn't understand them, sometimes even though there was experimental evidence favoring Einstein's theories. After solving the greatest open physics problems at the time in 1905, he continued working in the patent office until 1908, since the universities were too slow on the uptake to hire him earlier.
Example for how far ahead of his time Einstein was: Deriving the theory of light quanta
The following section is based on parts of the 8th chapter of "Surfaces and Essences" by Douglas Hofstadter. For an analysis of some of Einstein's discoveries, which show how far ahead of his time he was, I can recommend reading it.
At the time, one of the biggest problems in physics was the "Blackbody spectrum", which describes the spectrum of electromagnetic wavelengths emitted by a Blackbody. The problem with it was that the emitted spectrum was not explainable by known physics. Einstein achieved a breakthrough by considering light not just as a wave, but also as light quanta. Although this idea sufficiently explained the Blackbody spectrum, physicists (at least almost) unanimously rejected it.
The fight between the "light is corpuscles" and "light is a wave" faction had been decided a century ago, with a clear victory for the "wave" faction.
Being aware of these possible doubts, Einstein proposed three experiments to prove his idea, one of which was the photoelectric effect. In the following years, Robert Millikan carried out various experiments on the photoelectric effect, which all confirmed Einstein's predictions. Still, Millikan insisted that the light-quanta theory had no theoretical basis and even falsely claimed that Einstein himself did not believe in his idea anymore.
From Surfaces and Essences (p.611):
To add insult to injury, although the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Albert Einstein, it was not for his theory of light quanta but "for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect".
Weirdly, in the citation there was no mention of the ideas behind that law, since no one on the Nobel Committee (or in all of physics) believed in them! [1][...] And thus Albert Einstein's revolutionary ideas on the nature of light, that most fundamental and all-...