Storage capacity. Human working memory is able to hold no more than some four or five chunks of information at any given time. While it would be misleading to compare the size of human working memory directly with the amount of RAM in a digital computer, it is clear that the hardware advantages of digital intelligences will make it possible for them to have larger working memories. This might enable such minds to intuitively grasp complex relationships that humans can only fumblingly handle via plodding calculation. Human long-term memory is also limited, though it is unclear whether we manage to exhaust its storage capacity during the course of an ordinary … Continue reading Nick Bostrom