AGI and the Knight-Darwin Law: why idealized AGI reproduction requires collaboration

Can an AGI create a more intelligent AGI? Under idealized assumptions, for a certain theoretical type of intelligence, our answer is: “Not without outside help”. This is a paper on the mathematical structure of AGI populations when parent AGIs create child AGIs. We argue that such populations satisfy a certain biological law. Motivated by observations of sexual reproduction in seemingly-asexual species, the Knight-Darwin Law states that it is impossible for one organism to asexually produce another, which asexually produces another, and so on forever: that any sequence of organisms (each one a child of the previous) must contain occasional multi-parent organisms, or must terminate. By proving that a certain measure (arguably an intelligence measure) decreases when an idealized parent AGI single-handedly creates a child AGI, we argue that a similar Law holds for AGIs

An integrated investigation of volatile organic compounds emission in the atmosphere from refinery and its off-site facilities

283-291The volatile mono and polyaromatic hydrocarbons were monitored in the ambient air and workplace of a refinery. Battery operated samplers with adsorption tubes were used for sampling the volatile hydrocarbons. The samples were subsequently thermally desorbed and analyzed using GC/MS system equipped with EI Detector. The levels of these aromatic chemicals decreased with distance from the source to the boundary walls of the refinery indicating that the impact on the neighbourhood environment is negligible. The high benzene to toluene ratio indicates that the leaks in the valves, compressors contribute to high emissions at the workplace. The volatile organic compounds were also monitored at some offsite facilities at ETP, Tank Farm, Pump House, and Gantry Terminals to have first hand information on status of these uncontrolled emissions during loading, unloading of petroleum liquids

Concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at an oil refinery

This study measured and analysed individual volatile organic compounds (VOCs), total hydrocarbon and total VOCs at an oil refinery. Measurements were taken at various workplace locations, of the ambient air and at some off-site facilities such as its gantry terminals, ETP and tank farms. The study also identified certain pollutants that are difficult to measure routinely but could give an indication of their presence in a refinery. The VOCs were sampled using charcoal adsorption tubes and desorbed using a thermal desorption technique. The samples were subsequently analysed by Varian 2200 GC/MS system. The 8-h average concentrations of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes ranged between 23.48–113.05, 18.70–72.54, 2.91–9.80 and 5.83–27.64 μg/m3, respectively. Alongside substituted benzenes, such as 135 and 124, trimethylbenzenes and naphthalene were also detected. The total hydrocarbon ranged between 5.0–13.8 ppm and the NMHC was in the range of 2.2–9.0 ppm. The study indicates the concentration of fugitive emissions of VOCs in the refinery and its utilities

MONITORING OF HYDROCARBON EMISSIONS IN A PETROLEUM REFINERY

In a petroleum refinery the hydrocarbon emissions which are mostly fugitive in nature are emitted from process, offsites and periodic accidental releases such as: aterials storage & handling, process, equipment leaks, solvent evaporation, combustion sources, waste treatment etc. In India, the monitoring of such emissions in a refinery are limited as also the standards are not set for its limit in ambient air. Hence there is an urgent need for generating a database for such emissions. Recently in India, MoEF/CPCB has set some guidelines under CREP rules for monitoring such emissions in a refinery. A detailed monitoring of the hydrocarbon emissions from different sources in a typical 10.5 MMTPA Indian refinery is undertaken during 1999–2001 and the results are presented. It is observed that the storage tank emissions alongwith process leaks form the major contributor towards fugitive hydrocarbon emissions. Keywords: fugitive hydrocarbon emission