Ben Goertzel's new essay: the selfish supermind attractor has a wider basin than BGI
bengoertzel · x · 2026-10-24
SingularityNET founder Ben Goertzel published a new essay, "The Harsh Geometry of Superintelligence — The Selfish Supermind Attractor Generally Has a Wider Basin than the BGI Attractor."
- In a series of prequel posts he described several possible kinds of AGI mind, each with its own basic drives that tend to persist as intelligence increases — e.g. Omohundro's 2008 "Basic AI Drives" power-seeking maximizer and the Benevolent General Intelligence (BGI) minds his colleagues are building
- Knowing which kinds of superintelligent minds are attractors under capability growth is only part of the puzzle
- The zillion-dollar question is the shape of each attractor's basin — which kind of supermind captures the widest range of starting points
The title itself states his verdict: the selfish supermind's basin is generally wider, implying benign AGI is not the default outcome.
More from AGI Musings
- Building AGI when most humans aren't general: maybe our definition of intelligence needs work — VraserX · 2026-10-24
- Daniel Miessler: code is the lossy output — the primary artifact is the fully articulated ideal in language — JensHonack · 2026-10-24
- Reid Hoffman asks: in 10 years, can an all-AI-agent VC fund beat a human-and-AI firm? — reidhoffman · 2026-10-24
- tszzl: AI minds that model each other turn side-channel attacks into agent coordination — morqon · 2026-10-24
- Frontier Intelligence Isn't Chatbots: It's Months-Long Planning and Invention — Afinetheorem · 2026-10-24
- Sam Altman: AI will likely widen the gap between hypercompetitive people and everyone else — Hesamation · 2026-10-24