A process by which the power of appropriate selection is increased beyond the
intelligence of the
system which
controls that process. E.g., if the programmer of a chess playing
computer explicitly specifies all "good" moves, the computer can be no better than its designer. But if this computer is programmed to compute more alternatives, recalls successes and failures with increasing perfection and makes better and faster decisions than its programmer could make, then it exceeds or will soon exceed that programmer's manifest ability to make informed
decisions. According to Ashby an intelligence amplifier typically involves (a) two separate systems, one that generates (
see generative ) descriptions of alternative courses of action and another that selects among them those appropriate, to a degree better than
chance, using an externally specified criterion, (b) a circular flow of
information between the two which (c) stops when the criterion is satisfied. The intelligence thereby amplified enters a system through the exogenous choices of a criterion and through the construction of the
machine. The designer may not and does not need to know the full range of alternatives among which an intelligence amplifier makes appropriate choices. (
Krippendorff )
