Intelligence Is Not the Main Bottleneck • Hacker News Board

Re: Intelligence Is Not the Main Bottleneck

#121

Post by Veedrac » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 3:44 AM UTC

meroes wrote: post #63

Veedrac wrote: post #54

Indeed. Humans and not other apes reached the moon by our great proclivity to long distance running, through our exceptional sweat glands... ah, wait. How is it possible to live in the world around us and not see, apparent and transparent, that intelligence is the lever on which everything rests? Humans are surprisingly weird animals, but it's not our hairlessness or our fairly average propensity to violence that did…

The perfectly rational actor myth in economics will have Mary doing all sorts of things she doesn’t actually do. Mary just really likes peaches and the whole construct of rational actors is a fictional superstructure. Same with this idea of intelligence levering all our behavior. Maybe Mary keeps intelligently finding new ways to find scarce peaches, but her ultimate benefit is eating the peach. It’s that human desir…

My claim that Mary's extraordinary ability to get peaches whenever she wants is due to humanity's collective intelligence is not at all a claim that Mary wants peaches because she's a pure rational actor. (??)

Re: Intelligence Is Not the Main Bottleneck

#122

Post by Veedrac » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 3:48 AM UTC

discreteevent wrote: post #78

Veedrac wrote: post #54

Indeed. Humans and not other apes reached the moon by our great proclivity to long distance running, through our exceptional sweat glands... ah, wait. How is it possible to live in the world around us and not see, apparent and transparent, that intelligence is the lever on which everything rests? Humans are surprisingly weird animals, but it's not our hairlessness or our fairly average propensity to violence that did…

It's very clear that we have plenty of intelligence but we are not acting in it. What intelligence are we missing that is needed to solve climate change? (our most pressing problem - which AI is exacerbating) > We don't have more houses than chimpanzees because we're _strong_. You're literally making the point that we already have intelligence. I'm not sure how this is supposed to be an argument for a shortage. To re…

> What intelligence are we missing that is needed to solve climate change?

Cheaper solar and batteries? Effective drilling for geothermal? Working cost-effective fusion plants? Earlier awareness of the issue? Better coordination and communication? Better dealmaking? Better support of laws for voting systems that reflect broad preferences and that internalize externalities?

What answer could you possibly hope there be, other than intellectual ones?

> You're literally making the point that we already have intelligence.

?? So do chimpanzees? The existence of intellectual capability does not preclude returns from greater intellectual capability.

Re: Intelligence Is Not the Main Bottleneck

#123

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 3:50 AM UTC

sgt101 wrote: post #108

Veedrac wrote: post #54

Indeed. Humans and not other apes reached the moon by our great proclivity to long distance running, through our exceptional sweat glands... ah, wait. How is it possible to live in the world around us and not see, apparent and transparent, that intelligence is the lever on which everything rests? Humans are surprisingly weird animals, but it's not our hairlessness or our fairly average propensity to violence that did…

As far as I know humans with the same sort of brains as your brain and my brain have existed for 100,000's of years, perhaps as long as 2 million years. They did not go to the moon. They did not make mechanisms, they did not make pottery, they did not smelt iron, they did not press shapes onto clay and leave it in houses that burned down, they did not have houses. All of that has come in the last 12,000 years. I thin…

[deleted]

Re: Intelligence Is Not the Main Bottleneck

#124

Post by KPGv2 » Mon, Aug 10, 2026, 8:04 AM UTC

drivebyhooting wrote: post #112

KPGv2 wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In my city I call a handyman to fix my dryer and guess what? He uses chatGPT to help him through the issue. $350 Well it sounds like you made a mistake calling for help when it's apparently that easy.

And changing your car oil is easy. Vacuuming and dusting the house is easy. Many easy things. Too many for me to do all.

Too many things to do is what we call "hard" in English. (And then I look up and see "bottleneck" is literally in the topic we're discussing.)