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Dennett's Edge response of 2015 likens the Singularity, in which AI surpasses and takes over from its creators, to an urban legend, and holds that the real danger is ceding authority to machines that cannot think. Copy claim link
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Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source
Date 2015 · publication Records dated 2015 → Role Contesting Register (kind of text) Nonfiction Engagement States the contrary. States that the danger is not machines more intelligent than humans usurping their role, without arguing against a specific premise of the succession forecast. Scope and limits Dennett grants the scenario "a certain scientific plausibility" and directs attention to a different risk; the record does not show that he holds succession impossible.
The evidence 02 primary source Supports the claim
The Singularity—an Urban Legend? ↗ Edge (edge.org), response to the 2015 Edge Question "What do you think about machines that think?" · 2015
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Source excerpt “It has the earmarks of an urban legend” Location in source First paragraph
How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher
Machine-checked · 2026-11-01
Source details and check notes Authors Daniel C. Dennett Version Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-31 (SHA-256 20a0e43eb5b96f1e801f56e67c85e4bd0ca82ebf951c0600adb3d4add460cd46). Current Edge response page (response-detail/26035) under "2015 : WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT MACHINES THAT THINK?". Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-31 Language English (en) Attribution Daniel C. Dennett, “The Singularity—an Urban Legend?”, 2015. Reuse No open redistribution licence asserted. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each). Recheck terms before wider redistribution. Check notes Candidate pack passage, machine succession, scale and acceleration (research/heterodox-thought). The quotation (8 words) matched the text retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-31. Matching ignored differences of whitespace, case, quotation marks, dashes and Unicode compatibility forms, so the source’s typography can differ. No human editorial review. primary source Supports the claim
The Singularity—an Urban Legend? ↗ Edge (edge.org), response to the 2015 Edge Question "What do you think about machines that think?" · 2015
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Cite the original source Cite the original document, not Selekoa. Check these details against it.
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Source excerpt “The real danger, then, is not machines that are more intelligent than we are usurping our role as captains of our destinies.” Location in source Last paragraph
How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher
Machine-checked · 2026-11-01
Source details and check notes Authors Daniel C. Dennett Version Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-31 (SHA-256 20a0e43eb5b96f1e801f56e67c85e4bd0ca82ebf951c0600adb3d4add460cd46). Current Edge response page (response-detail/26035) under "2015 : WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT MACHINES THAT THINK?". Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-31 Language English (en) Attribution Daniel C. Dennett, “The Singularity—an Urban Legend?”, 2015. Reuse No open redistribution licence asserted. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each). Recheck terms before wider redistribution. Check notes Candidate pack passage, machine succession, scale and acceleration (research/heterodox-thought). The quotation (22 words) matched the text retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-31. Matching ignored differences of whitespace, case, quotation marks, dashes and Unicode compatibility forms, so the source’s typography can differ. No human editorial review. Status and meaning Editorial status. Machine-checked . Machines found this record and checked it against its sources; no person accepted it individually. Each evidence record above shows how it was checked.
Relation. A passage of the document disputes the proposition or a premise it depends on. The record documents the text’s position, not who is right.
Date. Edge files the response under the 2015 Edge Question; no day is given on the page.
Record ID ht-w01-dennett-2015-singularity-an-urban-legend