Prophet710 wrote:

Speaking of cyberbrains, could one install a Quantum Computer as a cyberbrain. AKA Quantum Cyberbrain?

Assuming it fits into your morph, why not? However, I suspect that there is no known quantum algorithm that runs an ego better than the classical one. Remember that quantum computers are just computers that can operate on qubit information, and in order to do something useful you need a quantum algorithm that exploits this. Works wonders for cracking old cryptographic keys or simulating physics, but might not help at all with wordprocessing, real number matrix multiplication or egos (check out http://math.nist.gov/quantum/zoo/ for a list of algorithms that do exist already). Quantum computing is not a general purpose "run everything faster and better". That said, a quantum ego (or AGI) algorithm would be interesting... probably interesting enough to merit a Firewall strike team. It would take an ego and run it in a superposition of all possible states - it would have all possible thoughts based on its original state. Note that it cannot interact with the outside world through perception or action, since that would break the superposition. Then it would collapse to one of them, and if the algorithm was formulated in the right way it would be the "best" one. This might correspond to the most robust result (across all possible thoughts, what is the conclusion that would be most likely?) or perhaps the one most likely to reach the ego's goals. In any case, it might be exceedingly smart or "lucky". (maybe spending a turn thinking about the next action will make it nearly automatically succeed or be lucky, assuming there is no unknown information) For more ideas about this, see Greg Egan's "Quarantine". Now imagine a bunch of exhuman singularity seekers with this power.

Prophet710 wrote:

With that in mind then, would it be plausible for a party, say Synergists to reach biological singularity (as opposed to mechanical/programmed) using this kind of setup only based on a Hive/Unity mind structure?

Huh? What is a biological singularity? Remember that the above stuff about quantum computers is all about cyberbrains. Real brains are to warm, wet and messy to sustain quantum computation (unless psi applies, or Stuart Hammeroff is right and I will have to eat my hat). I can certainly see neosynergists form more powerful minds and maybe find clever enhancements that make them way smarter. But they will always be limited by the slowest subsystems, which are likely going to be their wetware. Serious superintelligence likely requires something more efficient.

Prophet710 wrote:

That's basically what I meant by biological singularity. An intelligent singularity based solely on expansion of knowledge attained by strictly biological components. Neurons, synapse, cerebrum, etc.

But it's not a real intelligence singularity. The whole point behind the term singularity is that something increases or expands at such an exponential rate to be nearly unmeasurable and likely unquantifiable within the context of time before its occurrence. There is a hard limit to the amount of thinking that can be done with an organic brain, and we are likely already pretty close to that cap. Sure, we may be able to improve efficiency to a degree, but to a large extent we probably couldn't make cellular biology more efficient in the sense that we could microcircuitry, which can improve for as long as we can make it denser and more capable. Besides, there isn't really any incentive to stick with biological technologies for the purposes of a singularity. Meat bodies have a lot of disadvantages and limitations that could be overcome if we were to transition to materials more effective and efficient than biological structures.

Arenamontanus][quote=Prophet710 wrote:

In any case, it might be exceedingly smart or "lucky". (maybe spending a turn thinking about the next action will make it nearly automatically succeed or be lucky, assuming there is no unknown information)

In game terms, perhaps they'd get to use a point of moxie for free on any action they spend time thinking about.

Arenamontanus wrote:

I am not sure whether we are close to the limits of biological brains in regard to intelligence. Humanity is likely close to the most stupid a species can be in order to developed a technological civilization (why? Because we presumably evolved intelligence gradually and once we got good enough humanity took off) This means that we should expect engineering to be able to help us a fair bit even with biobrains. And a fair bit might mean the difference between human and chimp. Imagine an "uplifted" transhuman that was as smart in relation to normal transhumans as a transhuman is to a chimp. They would be able to solve problems that stump the transhuman completely, or doesn't even look like problems. They would value new things that transhumans cannot even perceive (think of art).

That's a fair point, although one has to wonder whether it's because we are just smart enough or have sacrificed other varieties of "intelligence" to become the most advanced tool-users. We do not have the memory capacity of other primates, and we are missing more complex sensory capabilities that they have as well (our olfactory senses are crap in comparison). For all we know, maximum intelligence was achieved a long time ago, and we sacrificed other forms of intelligence in order to gain the prerequisite linguistic skills and lateral thinking that created our society and technological achievements.

Arenamontanus wrote:

Sure, the cyberbrain is likely a shortcut. But don't underestimate what a lot of networked brains might do. In fact, what about cyborg synergism: have some members of the synergy use cyberbrains or even interface it to AGI? Maybe one could have a very diverse synergy that draws on the individual strengths of all components.

Yes, but at what point do we acknowledge that the cybernetic alterations we've made have effectively transitioned us from biological intelligence to early technological intelligence? If you limit yourself solely to biological mental acuity (which would include bioware, potentially coded into the genes of the recipient), you are looking at a hard cap for intelligence that falls just short of synergy tech. Then we start to dip toward technological intelligence, unless of course some synergist found the means to produce an organic brain component that can transmit and receive radio frequencies. I wonder if that would be a possibility....