Oracles are a subtype of Genies putatively designed to safely answer questions, and only to answer questions. Oracles are often assumed to be Boxed and the study of Oracles is sometimes taken to be synonymous with the study of Boxed Oracles.
by Eliezer Yudkowsky Jun 12 2015 updated Dec 16 2015
System designed to safely answer questions.
Oracles are a subtype of Genies putatively designed to safely answer questions, and only to answer questions. Oracles are often assumed to be Boxed and the study of Oracles is sometimes taken to be synonymous with the study of Boxed Oracles.
Comments
Morgan Sinclaire
The term "oracle" has a very specific definition in recursion theory and computational complexity theory, namely, a black box that can instantly compute a (possibly uncomputable) decision problem or function (not answer questions in natural language). I know this is just describing Bostrom's term, and maybe I'm just being nitpicky, but doesn't this kind of terminology signal a misunderstanding of CS concepts?