# A Simple Question To Quell "AGI" Hysterics

**URL:** <https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/t/a-simple-question-to-quell-agi-hysterics/3044>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Created:** [15 April 2023 00:03 UTC](https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/t/a-simple-question-to-quell-agi-hysterics/3044 "2023-04-15T00:03:58Z")\
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**Author:** ![johnwalker](https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/user_avatar/scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/johnwalker/32/17415_2.png) [@johnwalker](https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/u/johnwalker)\
**Post date:** [17 April 2023 12:44 UTC](https://scanalyst.fourmilab.ch/t/a-simple-question-to-quell-agi-hysterics/3044/8 "2023-04-17T12:44:33Z")

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The reason computer scientists aren’t interested in defining a minimum instruction set computer is because it’s a solved problem: see “[One-instruction set computer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-instruction_set_computer)”. There are a variety of single instructions which are [Turing-complete](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_completeness), such as:

- [Subtract and branch if less than or equal to zero](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-instruction_set_computer#Subtract_and_branch_if_less_than_or_equal_to_zero)
- [Subtract and branch if negative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-instruction_set_computer#Subtract_and_branch_if_negative)
- [Subtract if positive else branch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-instruction_set_computer#Arithmetic_Machine)
- [Reverse subtract and skip if borrow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-instruction_set_computer#Reverse_subtract_and_skip_if_borrow)

One advantage of a single instruction set computer is that you don’t need an op-code in the instruction, since there’s only one.

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