I also believe that no one person is going to put the nail in this beast called AGI. Working alone in one's private bedroom or lab is hardly conducive to creating the AGI or Singularity. A primitive cobbled apple computer in a garage by two visionaries of the past, perhaps, but this is a far different time for all of us.
What gives you this impression? AGI hasn't even begun as a field with any beginning principles, which means the field of AGI is wide open, awaiting new discoveries or ideas from anyone to get it started. Anyone can produce ideas without a computer, program, or a team of people. Only if someone gets hung up on the belief that AGI must be based on an existing type of hardware (e.g., computer, neural network) or existing type of software (e.g., algorithm, data structure) does that person become convinced that an individual is worthless for producing a breakthrough.
(p. 184)
Immunity Not Granted
In the marketplace, as untold millions have discovered, the
consequences of acting impulsively by joining the actions of the
crowd can be catastrophic. The so-called lemming effect (one
person following another over the edge of a financial cliff) has
fascinated students of human nature for centuries. The condi-
tion of your Self-Discipline Habit is severely tested when the
crowd is heading in one direction and your intellect and/or com-
mon sense tells you that it's the wrong direction. That's when
you must exercise the self-discipline to override the momentary
comfort of being in the mainstream. When you're tempted to
act impulsively in a situation like this, remind yourself that
the mainstream doesn't do very well over the long term. Civi-
lization progresses as a result of the actions of a few great minds;
the mainstream then simply goes along for the ride--and usu-
ally too late, at that.Ringer, Robert J. 1990.
Million Dollar Habits. New York, New York: Wynwood Press.
(p. 10)
The final article, "Thinking About the Brain," was written
by Francis Crick, the codiscoverer of the structure of DNA who
had by then turned his talents to studying the brain. Crick
argued that in spite of a steady accumulation of detailed knowl-
edge about the brain, how the brain worked was still a profound
mystery. Scientists usually don't write about what they don't
know, but Crick didn't care. He was like the boy pointing to the
emperor with no clothes. According to Crick, neuroscience was
a lot of data without a theory. His exact words were,
"what is con-
spicuously lacking is a broad framework of ideas." To me this
was the British gentleman's way of saying, "We don't have a clue
how this thing works." It was true then, and it's still true today.Hawkins, Jeff. 2004.
On Intelligence. New York: Times Books.