Comments on “What do unusually intelligent people do?”

Book on how scientists think

Brad Blumenthal 2023-02-14

Hi David, it’s been a few decades. I’m Penni’s friend who was at U Texas while you were working on your dissertation and had the privilege of reading an early draft.

You might have a look at the study in The Innovator’s DNA (https://hbr.org/2009/12/the-innovators-dna). They really didn’t discover anything usable about how very intelligent people think, but at least they looked.

The Innovator’s DNA

David Chapman 2023-02-15

Hi Brad! Thanks for the pointer—I’ll take a look.

Are language models scary? draws heavily on Penni’s PhD work! I think her ideas cast a lot of light both on how current LMs work, and how they could work better.

Dark triad

SusanC 2023-02-17

Rather than super intelligent, the AI might be super dark triad (e.g. supernaturally good at manipulating human beings in a psychopathic way)

Agreeing with SusanC, if there's a 1st sentient AI, it's almost sure to be a psychopath.

Hal Morris 2023-02-18

Agreeing with SusanC, if there’s a 1st sentient AI, it’s almost sure to be a psychopath.

superpsychopathic

David Chapman 2023-02-19

Rather than super intelligent, the AI might be super dark triad (e.g. supernaturally good at manipulating human beings in a psychopathic way)

Thanks, Susan, good point, I’ve added a sentence to this effect.

(Bing Chat seems a somewhat worrying precursor.)

Polya?

Michael Buckley 2023-05-08

Polya tried to teach a mathematical stance in “How to Solve It”. Or are you thinking even more intimate details of cognition?

Polya

David Chapman 2023-05-08

Relevant, yes! There’s enormously more even to how we do mathematics, never mind science, than is in his book, of course.