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marlag | 9 years ago

Has anyone proven logically that I, an entity, can create a new entity that is more intelligent than me? My intuition might be wrong, but how would that ever be a possibility, other than me aiding in the creation of a new human being?

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mcbits|9 years ago

Relatively weak human arms have enough strength to assemble tools that are much stronger than the original arms. A small, well placed flame can initiate a reaction that burns even hotter and brighter than itself. Our abstract concepts of strength, heat, brightness, and so on, are latent to varying degrees in the environment. Certain arrangements of raw materials release that potential.

If those analogies hold, then intelligence is still another concept expressed by some configurations of matter. Who knows how much "latent intelligence" is available to be released, but I guess the assumption is that it's much greater than what's already manifesting in our brains.

majewsky|9 years ago

The most well-known rebuttal is that Einstein's mother created someone more intelligent than her. There was no intelligence when the universe began (at least as far as we know), then intelligence was created as an emergent property of biological systems.