Towards an Actual Gödel Machine Implementation: a Lesson in Self-Reflective Systems
Bas R. Steunebrink, JÃ ⁄ rgen Schmidhuber · Atlantis thinking machines · 2012
Recently, interest has been revived in self-reflective systems in the context of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). An AGI system should be intelligent enough to be able to reason about its own program code, and make modifications where it sees fit, improving on the initial code written by human programmers. A pertinent example is the Gödel Machine, which employs a proof searcher— in parallel to its regular problem solves duties—to find a self-rewrite of which it can prove that it will be beneficial. Obviously there are technical challenges involved in attaining such a level of self-reflection in an AGI system, but many of them are not widely known or properly appreciated. In this chapter we go back to the theoretical foundations of self-reflection and examine the (often subtle) issues encountered when embarking on actually implementing a self-reflective AGI system in general and a Gödel Machine in particular.