Claim · 2001-03-07 · publication · Stated in source · Supported

Kurzweil's essay of 2001 holds that the Singularity is not a danger to be avoided but the goal of civilisation, and regards the freeing of the human mind from its physical limitations of scope and duration as the necessary next step in evolution.

One recorded claim. The claim panel gives its qualification, the source passages with their place in each source, and how it was checked.

What it connects

The Law of Accelerating Returns → bears on → Succession by machines would be acceptable or desirable

Where it appears

Machine succession, scale and acceleration: propositions in located texts, 1979–2026 →

Claim and evidence

The Law of Accelerating Returnsbears on ↓Succession by machines would be acceptable or desirable

Machine-checkedStated in sourceSupported

Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source

Date: 2001-03-07 · publication Records dated 2001 →
Wording attested: 2025-01-01. The wording was read in the Kurzweil Library page dated January 1, 2025. The cross-family check found other passages of the essay in the kurzweilai.net copy captured on 7 November 2001; not every passage of this record was compared with it.
Role: Context
Register (kind of text): Nonfiction
Missing element: The essay endorses a transition in which human civilisation continues in nonbiological form; it does not hold that the replacement of human beings by machines would be acceptable.

Scope and limitsA statement of the author's values; the essay elsewhere states that the nonbiological forms "will be derivative of biological design" and that "our civilization will remain human".

The evidence 01

primary sourceSupports the claim

The Law of Accelerating Returns

The Kurzweil Library (writingsbyraykurzweil.com), essay page · 2001-03-07

Archived copy, captured 2001-11-07: The Law of Accelerating Returns

Cite the original source

Cite the original document, not Selekoa. Check these details against it.

Source excerpt

“The Singularity then is not a grave danger to be avoided. In my view, this next paradigm shift represents the goal of our civilization.”

Location in source Section "The Next Step in Evolution and the Purpose of Life"

How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher

Machine-checked · 2026-11-01

Source details and check notes

Authors: Ray Kurzweil
Version: Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-31 (SHA-256 b1235f63983668667c5abade21b45d8084f3487cc19648396665252510f29aac). The Kurzweil Library page labelled "essay: the Law of Accelerating Returns. author: by Ray Kurzweil date: January 2001", with a page date of January 1, 2025. Not compared with the kurzweilai.net copies of 2001 (captures listed in retrievalFailures). The cross-family check of 2026-11-01 read the kurzweilai.net copy captured on 7 November 2001, which states that the essay was written in November 2000 and published on 7 March 2001, and found the quoted passages it compared.
Canonical address: Open the canonical source ↗
Accessed: 2026-10-31
Language: English (en)
Archive copy: Open archived copy, captured 2001-11-07: The Law of Accelerating Returns. Captured 245 days after the recorded publication date. An archive copy shows only what the archive retrieved on 2001-11-07. It does not prove what the page said earlier, and it can differ from the copy checked on 2026-10-31.
Attribution: Ray Kurzweil, “The Law of Accelerating Returns”, 2001-03-07.
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 (24 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 bears on the proposition without meeting its criterion; the record names the missing element. It is not an articulation and implies no influence.

Date. Published 7 March 2001 and written in November 2000, as the kurzweilai.net copy captured on 7 November 2001 states (cross-family check of 2026-11-01). The Kurzweil Library page read for the pack labels it January 2001.

Record ID ht-w02-kurzweil-2001-law-of-accelerating-returns