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Lanier's essay of 2000 argues that software does not improve with Moore's Law in the way hardware does, and that treating technology as autonomous abdicates human responsibility, against the expectation that computers will become autonomous successors. Copy claim link
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Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source
Date 2000-11-10 · publication Records dated 2000 → Role Earliest located, Contesting Register (kind of text) Nonfiction Engagement Engages a premise. Disputes the premise that Moore's Law will carry the quality of software, and so machines able to design their own successors, forward at the pace of hardware. Scope and limits The essay states that it shares the expectation of "huge and sudden changes" from technology; it disputes machine autonomy, not technological change. Lanier calls the view he answers "cybernetic totalism"; that is his term.
The evidence 03 primary source Supports the claim
One Half a Manifesto ↗ Edge (edge.org), conversation page dated 11.10.00 · 2000-11-10
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Source excerpt “That qualitative as well as quantitative aspects of information systems will be accelerated by Moore's Law.” Location in source Heading "Belief #5"
How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher
Machine-checked · 2026-11-01
Source details and check notes Authors Jaron Lanier Version Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-31 (SHA-256 d77294df1834f02d30948d184519b213ce4c20e7ed399c33617f61b4291f8750). Current Edge conversation page "ONE HALF A MANIFESTO By Jaron Lanier [11.10.00]", with the Reality Club discussion; not compared with the 2000 capture of the earlier Edge address. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-31 Language English (en) Attribution Jaron Lanier, “One Half a Manifesto”, 2000-11-10. 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 (16 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. The heading states, in Lanier's wording, one of the beliefs the essay lists in order to dispute them; his answer follows in the same section. A cross-family machine check (2026-11-01, item 52) classified the record’s passage blind and reached the same stance. No human editorial review. primary source Supports the claim
One Half a Manifesto ↗ Edge (edge.org), conversation page dated 11.10.00 · 2000-11-10
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Source excerpt “If anything, there's a reverse Moore's Law observable in software” Location in source Section "Belief #5"
How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher
Machine-checked · 2026-11-01
Source details and check notes Authors Jaron Lanier Version Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-31 (SHA-256 d77294df1834f02d30948d184519b213ce4c20e7ed399c33617f61b4291f8750). Current Edge conversation page "ONE HALF A MANIFESTO By Jaron Lanier [11.10.00]", with the Reality Club discussion; not compared with the 2000 capture of the earlier Edge address. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-31 Language English (en) Attribution Jaron Lanier, “One Half a Manifesto”, 2000-11-10. 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 (10 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. A cross-family machine check (2026-11-01, item 52) classified the record’s passage blind and reached the same stance. No human editorial review. primary source Supports the claim
One Half a Manifesto ↗ Edge (edge.org), conversation page dated 11.10.00 · 2000-11-10
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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 “I think that treating technology as if it were autonomous is the ultimate self-fulfilling prophecy. There is no difference between machine autonomy and the abdication of human responsibility.” Location in source Conclusion
How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher
Machine-checked · 2026-11-01
Source details and check notes Authors Jaron Lanier Version Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-31 (SHA-256 d77294df1834f02d30948d184519b213ce4c20e7ed399c33617f61b4291f8750). Current Edge conversation page "ONE HALF A MANIFESTO By Jaron Lanier [11.10.00]", with the Reality Club discussion; not compared with the 2000 capture of the earlier Edge address. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-31 Language English (en) Attribution Jaron Lanier, “One Half a Manifesto”, 2000-11-10. 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 (28 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. A cross-family machine check (2026-11-01, item 52) classified the record’s passage blind and reached the same stance. 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 dateline [11.10.00].
Record ID ht-w01-lanier-2000-one-half-a-manifesto