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AGI is Mathematically Impossible 2: When Entropy Returns

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Re: AGI is Mathematically Impossible 2: When Entropy Returns

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi and thanks for engaging :-) Well, it in fact depends on what intelligence is to your understanding: -If it intelligence = IQ, i.e. the rational ability to infer, to detect/recognize and extrapolate patterns etc, then AI is or will soon be more intelligent than us, while we humans are just muddling through or simply lucky having found relativity theory and other innovations just at the convenient moment in time ...…

Let me steal another users alternate phrasing: Since humans and computers are both bound by the same physical laws, why does your proof not apply to humans?

Why? 1. Basically because physical laws obviously allow more than algorithmic cognition and problem solving. (And also: I am bound by thermodynamics as my mother in Law is, still i get disarranged by her mere presence while I always have to put laxatives in her wine to counter that)

2. human rationality is equally limited as algorithms. Neither an algorithm nor human logic can find itself a path from Newton to Einsteins SR. Because it doesn't exist.

3. Physical laws - where do they really come from? From nature? From logic? Or from that strange thing we do: experience, generate, pattern, abstract, express — and try to make it communicable? I honestly don’t know.

In a nutshell: there obviously is no law that forbids us to innovate - we do this, quite often. There only is a logical boundary, that says that there is no way to derive something out of a something that is not part of itself - no way for thinking to point beyond what is thinkable.

Imagine little Albert asking his physics teacher in 1880: "Sir - for how long do I have to stay at high speed in order to look as grown up as my elder brother?" ... i guess "interesting thought" would not have been the probable answer... rather something like "have you been drinking? Stop doing that mental crap - go away, you little moron!"

Re: AGI is Mathematically Impossible 2: When Entropy Returns

#102
The difference between human and artificial intelligence (whatever "intelligence" is) is in the following: - AI is COMPLICATED (e.g. the World's Internet) yet it is REDUCIBLE and it is COUNTABLE (even if infinite) - Human intelligence is COMPLEX; it is IRREDUCIBLE (and it does not need to be large; 3 is a good number for a complex system) - AI has a chance of developing useful tools and methods and will certainly advance our civilization; it should not, however, be confused with intelligence (except by persons who do not discern complicated from complex) - Everything else is poppycock

Re: AGI is Mathematically Impossible 2: When Entropy Returns

#104
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure I can (and thanks for writing) Well, given the specific way you asked that question I confirm your self assertion - and am quite certain that your level of Artificiality converges to zero, which would make you a GI without A... - You stated to "feel" generally intelligent (A's don't feel and don't have an "I" that can feel) - Your nuanced, subtly ironic and self referential way of formulating clearly suggests th…

>but obviously, there seems to be more than that. I don't see how that's obvious. I'm not trying to be argumentative here, but it seems like these arguments always come down to a qualia, or the insistence that humans have some sort of 'spark' that machines don't have, therefore: AGI is not possible since machines don't have it. I also don't understand the argument that "Your nuanced, subtly ironic and self referentia…

Oh no, I am not at all trying to find an explanation of why this is (qualia etc.). There is simply no necessity for that. It is interesting, but not part of the scientific problem that i tried to find an answer to.

The proof (all three of them) holds without any explanatory effort concerning causalities around human frame-jumping etc.

For this paper, It is absolutely sufficient to prove that a) this cannot be reached algorithmically and that b) evidence clearly shows that humans can (somehow) do this , as they have already done this (quite often).

Re: AGI is Mathematically Impossible 2: When Entropy Returns

#105
post #14

This paper presents a theoretical proof that AGI systems will structurally collapse under certain semantic conditions — not due to lack of compute, but because of how entropy behaves in heavy-tailed decision spaces. The idea is called IOpenER: Information Opens, Entropy Rises. It builds on Shannon’s information theory to show that in specific problem classes (those with α ≤ 1), adding information doesn’t reduce uncer…

The mathematical proof, as you describe it, sounds like the "No Free Lunch theorem". Humans also can't generalise to learning such things. As you note in 2.1, there is widespread disagreement on what "AGI" means. I note that you list several definitions which are essentially "is human equivalent". As humans can be reduced to physics, and physics can be expressed as a computer program, obviously any such definition ca…

1. I appreciate the comparison — but I’d argue this goes somewhat beyond the No Free Lunch theorem.

NFL says: no optimizer performs best across all domains. But the core of this paper doesnt talk about performance variability, it’s about structural inaccessibility. Specifically, that some semanti spaces (e.g., heavy-tailed, frame-unstable, undecidable contexts) can’t be computed or resolved by any algorithmic policy — no matter how clever or powerful. The model does not underperform here, the point is that the problem itself collapses the computational frame.

2. OMG, lool. ... just to clarify, there’s been a major misunderstanding :)

the “weight-question”-Part is NOT a transcript from my actual life... thankfully - I did not transcribe a live ChatGPT consult while navigating emotional landmines with my (perfectly slim) wife, then submit it to PhilPapers and now here…

So - NOT a real thread, - NOT a real dialogue with my wife... - just an exemplary case... - No, I am not brain dead and/or categorically suicidal!! - And just to be clear: I dont write this while sitting in some marital counseling appointment, or in my lawyer's office, the ER, or in a coroners drawer

--> It’s a stylized, composite example of a class of decision contexts that resist algorithmic resolution — where tone, timing, prior context, and social nuance create an uncomputably divergent response space.

Again : No spouse was harmed in the making of that example.

;-))))

Re: AGI is Mathematically Impossible 2: When Entropy Returns

#106

The difference between human and artificial intelligence (whatever "intelligence" is) is in the following: - AI is COMPLICATED (e.g. the World's Internet) yet it is REDUCIBLE and it is COUNTABLE (even if infinite) - Human intelligence is COMPLEX; it is IRREDUCIBLE (and it does not need to be large; 3 is a good number for a complex system) - AI has a chance of developing useful tools and methods and will certainly adv…

Very good point.

I in fact had thought of describing the problem from a systems theoretical perspective as this is another way to combine different paths into a common principle

That was a sketch, in case you are into these kind of approaches:

2. Complexity vs. Complication In systems theory, the distinction between 'complex' and 'complicated' is critical. Complicated systems can be decomposed, mapped, and engineered. Complex systems are emergent, self-organizing, and irreducible. Algorithms thrive on complication. But general intelligence—especially artificial general intelligence (AGI)—must operate in complexity. Attempting to match complex environments through increased complication (more layers, more parameters) leads not to adaptation, but to collapse. 3. The Infinite Choice Barrier and Entropy Collapse In high-entropy decision spaces, symbolic systems attempt to compress possibilities into structured outcomes. But there is a threshold—empirically visible around entropy levels of H ≈ 20 (one million outcomes)—beyond which compression fails. Adding more depth does not resolve uncertainty; it amplifies it. This is the entropy collapse point: the algorithm doesn't fail because it cannot compute. It fails because it computes itself into divergence. 4. The Oracle and the Zufallskelerator To escape this paradox, the system would need either an external oracle (non-computable input), or pure chance. But chance is nearly useless in high-dimensional entropy. The probability of a meaningful jump is infinitesimal. The system becomes a closed recursion: it must understand what it cannot represent. This is the existential boundary of algorithmic intelligence: a structural self-block. 5. The Organizational Collapse of Complexity The same pattern is seen in organizations. When faced with increasing complexity, they often respond by becoming more complicated—adding layers, processes, rules. This mirrors the AI problem. At some point, the internal structure collapses under its own weight. Complexity cannot be mirrored. It must either be internalized—by becoming complex—or be resolved through a radically simpler rule, as in fractal systems or chaos theory.

6. Conclusion: You Are an Algorithm An algorithmic system can only understand what it can encode. It can only compress what it can represent. And when faced with complexity that exceeds its representational capacity, it doesn't break. It dissolves. Reasoning regresses to default tokens, heuristics, or stalling. True intelligence—human or otherwise—must either become capable of transforming its own frame (metastructural recursion), or accept the impossibility of generality. You are an algorithm. You compress until you can't. Then you either transform, or collapse

Re: AGI is Mathematically Impossible 2: When Entropy Returns

#107
post #72

This paper presents a theoretical proof that AGI systems will structurally collapse under certain semantic conditions — not due to lack of compute, but because of how entropy behaves in heavy-tailed decision spaces. The idea is called IOpenER: Information Opens, Entropy Rises. It builds on Shannon’s information theory to show that in specific problem classes (those with α ≤ 1), adding information doesn’t reduce uncer…

I'm wondering if you may have rediscovered the concept of "Wicked Problems", which have been studied in system analysis and sociology since the 1970's (I'd cite the Wikipedia page, but I've never been particularly fond of Wikipedia's write up on them). They may be worth reading up on if you're not familiar with them.

Wow, that is a great advice. Never heard of them - and they seem to fit perfectly into the whole concept THANK YOU! :-)

Re: AGI is Mathematically Impossible 2: When Entropy Returns

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me steal another users alternate phrasing: Since humans and computers are both bound by the same physical laws, why does your proof not apply to humans?

Why? 1. Basically because physical laws obviously allow more than algorithmic cognition and problem solving. (And also: I am bound by thermodynamics as my mother in Law is, still i get disarranged by her mere presence while I always have to put laxatives in her wine to counter that) 2. human rationality is equally limited as algorithms. Neither an algorithm nor human logic can find itself a path from Newton to Einste…

> Why? 1. Basically because physical laws obviously allow more than algorithmic cognition and problem solving.

You seem to be laboring under the mistaken idea that "algorithmic" does not encompass everything allowed by physics. But, humoring this idea, then if physical laws allow it, why can this "more than algorithmic" cognition not be done artificially? As you say - we can obviously do it. What magical line is preventing an artificial system from doing the same?

Re: AGI is Mathematically Impossible 2: When Entropy Returns

#110
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mathematical proof, as you describe it, sounds like the "No Free Lunch theorem". Humans also can't generalise to learning such things. As you note in 2.1, there is widespread disagreement on what "AGI" means. I note that you list several definitions which are essentially "is human equivalent". As humans can be reduced to physics, and physics can be expressed as a computer program, obviously any such definition ca…

1. I appreciate the comparison — but I’d argue this goes somewhat beyond the No Free Lunch theorem. NFL says: no optimizer performs best across all domains. But the core of this paper doesnt talk about performance variability, it’s about structural inaccessibility. Specifically, that some semanti spaces (e.g., heavy-tailed, frame-unstable, undecidable contexts) can’t be computed or resolved by any algorithmic policy…

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