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Moravec's essay of 1991 states that a fourth generation of robots could replace human beings in every essential task, and that society could then operate without humans, with machines running companies and doing research. Copy claim link
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Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source
Date 1991-07 · publication Records dated 1991 → Wording attested 2026-10-31. Wording read in the copy retrieved on 2026-10-31. An Internet Archive capture of 1999-02-09 exists but could not be compared, since the Internet Archive refused the research pack's retrievals; if the capture is found identical, the wording is attested from 1999-02-09. Not compared with any printed version. Role Articulation Register (kind of text) Nonfiction Scope and limits A conditional forecast ("could"); it does not state that humans cease to exist.
The evidence 02 primary source Supports the claim
The Universal Robot ↗ Hans Moravec (author-hosted HTML); the author's publication list gives printings in Ars Electronica 91 (September 1991), Analog (January 1992) and elsewhere · 1991-07
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Source excerpt “The fourth robot generation and its successors, with human perceptual and motor abilities and superior reasoning powers, could replace human beings in every essential task.” Location in source Section "Mind Children (2050+)"
How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher
Machine-checked · 2026-11-01
Source details and check notes Authors Hans Moravec Version Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-31 (SHA-256 33ee68f71f05c3d3db73c992720d296878d5dd22b253591e9c0149c3b11e3c68). Author-hosted HTML printing "© July 1991 by Hans Moravec" and "(4700 words)". Earliest capture located: 1999-02-09 (not compared). Printed versions not inspected. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-31 Language English (en) Attribution Hans Moravec, “The Universal Robot”, 1991-07. 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 (25 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 Universal Robot ↗ Hans Moravec (author-hosted HTML); the author's publication list gives printings in Ars Electronica 91 (September 1991), Analog (January 1992) and elsewhere · 1991-07
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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 “In principle, our society could continue to operate increasingly well without us, with machines running the companies and doing the research as well as performing the productive work.” Location in source Section "Mind Children (2050+)"
How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher
Machine-checked · 2026-11-01
Source details and check notes Authors Hans Moravec Version Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-31 (SHA-256 33ee68f71f05c3d3db73c992720d296878d5dd22b253591e9c0149c3b11e3c68). Author-hosted HTML printing "© July 1991 by Hans Moravec" and "(4700 words)". Earliest capture located: 1999-02-09 (not compared). Printed versions not inspected. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-31 Language English (en) Attribution Hans Moravec, “The Universal Robot”, 1991-07. 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. 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 meets the proposition’s criterion. The record documents what the text states, in its register (fiction and satire are labelled); it is not evidence that the proposition is true and implies no influence on or from another text.
Date. Informal report of July 1991, per the page and the author's publication list.
Record ID ht-w01-moravec-1991-universal-robot