This book lines up with a lot of what I've been thinking: the centrality of prediction, how intelligence needs distributed social structure, language as compression, why isolated systems can't crack general intelligence.
But there are real splits on substrate dependence and what actually drives the system. Can you get intelligence from pure prediction, or does it need the pressure of real consequences? And deeper: can it emerge from computational principles alone, or does it require specific environmental embeddedness?
My sense is that execution cost drives everything. You have to pay back what you spend, which forces learning and competent action. In biological or social systems you're also supporting the next generation of agents, so intelligence becomes efficient search because there's economic pressure all the way down. The social bootstrapping isn't decorative, it's structural.
I also posted yesterday a related post on HN
> What the Dumpster Teaches: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45698854
But there are real splits on substrate dependence and what actually drives the system. Can you get intelligence from pure prediction, or does it need the pressure of real consequences? And deeper: can it emerge from computational principles alone, or does it require specific environmental embeddedness?
My sense is that execution cost drives everything. You have to pay back what you spend, which forces learning and competent action. In biological or social systems you're also supporting the next generation of agents, so intelligence becomes efficient search because there's economic pressure all the way down. The social bootstrapping isn't decorative, it's structural.
I also posted yesterday a related post on HN
> What the Dumpster Teaches: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45698854