Predict a pixel given the pixels around it, near and far. Predict the amplitude of a sample in a sequence of samples forming an audio file. Predict a word in a sequence of words, in a sequence of sentences, etc. Predict a line of code in the context of its surrounding code and the whole of the program it is a part of. Predict, and then find the structure of contingent probability within a corpus, or a modality. What element can change so as to make many other nodes also change their expectation. Those are upstream, those are central and of importance. Then you make an ontology that maps games generally. The fact that you need information which you can share and receive from others, that you can negotiate, that you can be part of or be excluded from shared wholes, that you can deceive, that you can compute, that you can be wrong, that you can take risks and win or fail, that you can move around, that you can be forgotten. And in this you also learn the probabilites, which are “platonic”, they’re eternally true. The correct strategy given a set of rules is written into the blockchain of reality so to speak, it’s something you can “read” by simulating it. And then to make an agent that focalizes into the POV of another agent in this game ontology and make it know what is expected of it, and how it is to behave in the high level domain of struggle, cooperation, obediance, mastery, friendship, utility, etc. And you have something close to AGI. But biological life has written into it at every level that it must strive upwards, or at least it has this germ within it, and computers do not, they are fragile, so we may get some bright beams of AGI but it will not automatically want to edit itself so as to preserve its existence. We dont even do that. Like bap points out, reproduction is not the purpose of living organisms, but a mere side effect of the strive for greatness, the force the reaches beyond itself. To optimize only for reproduction is the most stingy fearful strategy within this spectrum, where you perpetually want to squeeze out the smallest possible crumb of beauty and dangerous aliveness, trying to stay alive as long as possible and reproduce as many as possible instead of seeking great heights of exhilaration