This comment was originally posted <A HREF="http://www.overcomingbias.com/2008/12/by-your-own-strength.html#comment-144521620">here</A>.<P>

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The main modern change in "optimisation techniques" I see is down to
the origin of genetic media which can be written directly on by
brains - and thus persist past the deaths of individual agents -
resulting in the whole edifice of human culture.<P>

It seems to me that this is indeed causing all the interesting
modern changes dating back to around 3 mya - in a fairly direct and
straightforwards manner - <b>including</b> the origin of
superintelligent machines, when they come.<P>
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