> I also feel it is rather emergent and should (must!) emerge pretty fast, even, in order to __survive__.
That is in fact correct. Apparently dopamine circuits activate with exploration and novelty. An example given in the book I mentioned above [1] asks you to imagine walking to work, and seeing a new burger joint, your brain goes
> aha! Prediction error! I must explore
Which is why we crave things and want to try new stuff. So effectively we have a world model that is constantly evaluated and some circuits that promote search for novelty, not only making it cheaper to execute certain behaviour, but compelling us even to do so, making it harder not to do things.
> See, this is where I respectfully disagree. The benefit can be emerging from a longer-term simulation rather than immediately. You might say: sure but what are the chances of this happening? Well how many intelligent species like ours have we encountered so far? On this planet, in this universe?
The benefits here are seen when we consider just how long it takes to have a properly functional human. I mentioned above that changes across generations are small, genetic and epigenetic. What I failed to mention however is that that is not the only way information is passed between generations. This is where pro-social behaviour shines the most I think. In the capacity to accumulate and pass information across generations.
Using your levels of intelligence, we could argue that all of them serve a self-replicating purpose the core - level 0 if you will. On top of that chemistry exists, providing a basic self-replication mechanism. Evolution itself - the capacity to mutate - is a search mechanism for better self-replication ontop of the chemistry, so level 1 if you will. Then due to limitations in speed of evolution - societies evolve, not individuals - we have a level 2, epigenetics. Then we reach group dynamics (e.g. monkeys with electroshock that learn not to do a certain behaviour even though none of the original monkeys of the experiment are present), so information is passed through immediate interactions. This could very well be level 3. And finally passing and disseminating information across generations through written work as a level 4.
That is in fact correct. Apparently dopamine circuits activate with exploration and novelty. An example given in the book I mentioned above [1] asks you to imagine walking to work, and seeing a new burger joint, your brain goes
> aha! Prediction error! I must explore
Which is why we crave things and want to try new stuff. So effectively we have a world model that is constantly evaluated and some circuits that promote search for novelty, not only making it cheaper to execute certain behaviour, but compelling us even to do so, making it harder not to do things.
> See, this is where I respectfully disagree. The benefit can be emerging from a longer-term simulation rather than immediately. You might say: sure but what are the chances of this happening? Well how many intelligent species like ours have we encountered so far? On this planet, in this universe?
The benefits here are seen when we consider just how long it takes to have a properly functional human. I mentioned above that changes across generations are small, genetic and epigenetic. What I failed to mention however is that that is not the only way information is passed between generations. This is where pro-social behaviour shines the most I think. In the capacity to accumulate and pass information across generations.
Using your levels of intelligence, we could argue that all of them serve a self-replicating purpose the core - level 0 if you will. On top of that chemistry exists, providing a basic self-replication mechanism. Evolution itself - the capacity to mutate - is a search mechanism for better self-replication ontop of the chemistry, so level 1 if you will. Then due to limitations in speed of evolution - societies evolve, not individuals - we have a level 2, epigenetics. Then we reach group dynamics (e.g. monkeys with electroshock that learn not to do a certain behaviour even though none of the original monkeys of the experiment are present), so information is passed through immediate interactions. This could very well be level 3. And finally passing and disseminating information across generations through written work as a level 4.
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/38728977-the-molecule...