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Intelligence, what is it?

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If we take a look back at the history
of how intelligence is being viewed,

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one seminal example has been
Edsger Dijkstra's famous quote

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that the question of
whether a machine can think

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is about as interesting as the question of

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whether a submarine can swim.

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Now, Edsger Dijkstra, when he wrote this,
intended it as a criticism

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of early pioneers of computer science
like Alan Turing.

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However, if you take a look back

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and think about what have been
the most empowering innovations

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that enabled us to build
artificial machines that swim

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and artificial machines that [fly],

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you find that it was only through
understanding the underlying

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physical mechanisms of swimming
and flight that we were able

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to build these machines.

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And so, several years ago,
I undertook a program

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to try to understand the fundamental
physical mechanisms

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underlying intelligence.

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Let's take a step back.

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Let's first begin
with a thought experiment.

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Pretend that you're an alien race

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that doesn't know anything
about Earth biology or Earth neuroscience

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or Earth intelligence, but you have
amazing telescopes

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and you're able to watch the Earth
and you have amazingly long lives

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so you're able to watch the Earth
over millions, even billions of years.

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And you observe a really strange effect,

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you observe that over the course
of the millennia,

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Earth is continually bombarded
with asteroids up until a point

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and that at some point,
corresponding roughly

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to our year 2000 AD, asteroids that are
on a collision course with the Earth,

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that otherwise would have collided,
mysteriously get deflected

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or detonate before they can hit the Earth.

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Now, of course, as Earthlings,
we know the reason would be

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that we're trying to save ourselves,
we're trying to prevent an impact.

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But if you're an alien race
that doesn't know any of this,

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that doesn't have any concept
of Earth intelligence,

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you'd be forced to put together

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a physical theory that explains how,
up until a certain point in time,

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asteroids thad would demolish
the surface of the planet,

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mysteriously stop doing that.

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So, I claim that this is the same question

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as understanding the physical
nature of intelligence.

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So, in this program that I undertook
years ago, I've looked at a variety

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of different threads in crossed science
across a variety of disciplines,

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pointing, I think, towards a single
underlying mechanism for intelligence.

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In cosmology, for example,

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there has been a variety
of different threads of evidence

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that our universe appears to be
finely tuned for the development

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of intelligence, and in particular,
for the development

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of universal states that maximize
the diversity of possible futures.

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In gameplay, for example in Go,
everyone remembers in 1997

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when IBM's Deep Blue beat
Gary Kasparov at chess.

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Fewer people are aware
that in the past ten year or so,

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the game of Go, arguably a much more
challenging game because it has

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a much higher branching factor,
has also started to succumb to computer

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game players for the same reason.

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The best techniques, right now,
for computers playing Go,

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are techniques that try to maximize
future options during gameplay.

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Finally, in robotic motion planning,

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there has been a variety
of recent techniques

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that have tried to take advantage
of abilities of robots to maximize

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future freedom of action in order
to accomplish complex tasks.

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And so, taking all of these different
threads and putting them together,

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I asked, starting several years ago,
is there an underlying mechanism

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for intelligence that we can factor out
of all of these different threads?

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Is there, as it were,
a single equation for intelligence?

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And the answer, I believe, is yes.

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What you're seeing is probably the closest
equivalent to an E=mc2 for intelligence

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that I certainly have ever seen.

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So, what you're seeing here

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is a statement of correspondence
that intelligence is a Force (F)

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that acts so as to maximize
future freedom of action;

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It acts to maximize future freedom
of action or keep options open

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with some strength (T),

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with the amount of the diversity
of possible accessible futures (S),

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up to some future time horizon (Ƭ).

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In short, intelligence doesn't like

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to get trapped, intelligence tries
to maximize future freedom of action

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and keep options open.
And so, given this one equation

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it's natural to ask:
So, what can you do with this?

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How predictive is it? Does it predict
human-level intelligence?

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Does it predict artificial intelligence?

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So, I'm going to show you now a video
that will, I think, demonstrate

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some of the amazing applications
of just this single equation.

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(Video) Recent research in cosmology
has suggested that universes

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that produce more disorder or "entropy"
over their lifetimes should tend

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to have more favorable conditions
for the existence of intelligent beings

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such as ourselves.

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But what if that tentative
cosmological connection

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between entropy and intelligence
hints at a deeper relationship?

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What if intelligent behavior
doesn't just correlate

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with the production of long-term entropy,
but actually emerges directly from it?

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To find out, we developed
a software engine called ENTROPICA

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designed to maximize the production
of long-term entropy of any system

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that it finds itself in.

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Amazingly, ENTROPICA was able to pass
multiple animal intelligence tests,

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play human games
and even earn money trading stocks;

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all without being instructed to do so.

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Here are some examples
of ENTROPICA in action:

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just like a human standing upright
without falling over, here we see

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ENTROPICA automatically
balancing a pole using a cart.

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This behavior is remarkable, in part,
because we never gave ENTROPICA a goal,

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it simply decided on its own
to balance the pole.

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This balancing ability would have
applications for humanoid robotics

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and human assistive technologies.

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Just as some animals can use
objects in their environments

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as tools to reach into narrow spaces,

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here we see that ENTROPICA,
again on its own initiative,

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was able to move a large disk,
representing an animal,

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around so as to cause a small disk,
representing a tool,

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to reach into a confined space
holding a third disk

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and release the third disk
from its initially fixed position.

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This tool usability would have application
for smart manufacturing and agriculture.

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In addition, just as some other animals
are able to cooperate

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by pulling opposite ends of a rope
at the same time to release food,

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here we see that ENTROPICA
is able to accomplish

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a model version of that task.

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This cooperative ability has interesting
implications for economic planning

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and a variety of other fields.

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ENTROPICA is broadly applicable
to a variety of domains.

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For example, here we see it successfully
playing a game of pong against itself

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illustrating its potential for gaming.

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Here, we see ENTROPICA orchestrating

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new connections on a social network
where friends are constantly

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falling out of touch and successfully
keeping the network well connected.

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This same network orchestration ability
also has applications in health care,

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energy and intelligence.

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Here we see ENTROPICA directing
the paths of a fleet of ships

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successfully discovering and utilizing
the Panama Canal to globally extend

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its reach from the Atlantic
to the Pacific.

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By the same token, ENTROPICA
is broadly applicable to problems

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in autonomous defense,
logistics and transportation.

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Finally, here we see ENTROPICA
spontaneously discovering and executing

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a buy low, sell high strategy
on a simulated range traded stock

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successfully growing assets
under management exponentially.

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This risk management ability
would have broad applications

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in finance and insurance.

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AWG: So, what you've just seen
is that a variety

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of signature human
intelligent cognitive behavior

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such us tool use and walking upright

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and social cooperation, all follow
from a single equation

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which drives a system to maximize
its future freedom of action.

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Now, there's a profound irony here.

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Going back to the beginning
of the usage of the term robot,

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the play RUR,

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there was always a concept
that if we develop machine, intelligence,

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there will be a cybernetic revolt,
that machines would rise up against us.

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One major consequence of this work
is that maybe all of these decades

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we've had the whole concept
of cybernetic revolt in reverse.

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It's not that machines
first become intelligent

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and then megalomaniacal,
and try to take over the world.

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It's quite the opposite:
that the urge to take control

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of all possible futures
is a more fundamental principle

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than that of intelligence;
that general intelligence may, in fact,

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emerge directly from this sort
of control grabbing,

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rather than vice versa.

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Another important consequence
is goal seeking.

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I'm often asked how does the ability
to seek goals follow from this framework

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and the answer is:

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the ability to seek goals, for example
if you're playing the game of chess,

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to try to win that game of chess
in order to accomplish worldly goods

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and accomplishments outside of that game,

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will follow directly from this
in the following sense:

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Just like you would travel
through a tunnel, a bottleneck,

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in your future path space
in order to achieve many other

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diverse objectives later on
or just like you would invest

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in a financial security reducing
your short term liquidity

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in order to increase your wealth
over the long term,

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goal seeking emerges directly
from a long term drive

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to increase future freedom of action.

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Finally, the famous physicist
Richard Feynman once wrote

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that if human civilization were destroyed
and you could pass only a single concept

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on to our descendents
to help them rebuild civilization,

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that concept should be
that all matter around us

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is made out of tiny elements
that attract each other

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when they're far apart,
but repel each other

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when they're close together.

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My equivalent to that statement
to pass on to descendents

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to help them build
artificial intelligence,

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or to help them to understand
human intelligence, is the following:

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Intelligence should be viewed
as a physical process

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that tries to maximize
future freedom of action

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and avoid constraints in its own future.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)