Claim · 1993-06 · publication · Stated in source · Supported

Moravec's essay of 1993 states that some humans would pursue robotic self-transformation clandestinely if it were outlawed, with potential for "very ugly confrontations", and proposes an escape clause sending such people into space.

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 Age of Robots → bears on → Conflict over building superhuman machines

Where it appears

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

Claim and evidence

The Age of Robotsbears on ↓Conflict over building superhuman machines

Machine-checkedStated in sourceSupported

Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source

Date: 1993-06 · publication Records dated 1993 →
Wording attested: 2026-10-31. Wording read in the copy retrieved on 2026-10-31. An Internet Archive capture of 2000-08-17 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 2000-08-17. Not compared with any printed version.
Role: Context
Register (kind of text): Nonfiction
Missing element: Concerns conflict over individual human transformation into robots, not division of humanity into opposed political groups over building superhuman machines, and no large-scale war.

Scope and limitsThe essay proposes a compromise to avoid such confrontations.

The evidence 01

primary sourceSupports the claim

The Age of Robots

Hans Moravec (author-hosted HTML); the author's publication list gives Extro 1, Proceedings of the First Extropy Institute Conference (1994), pp. 84-100 · 1993-06

Cite the original source

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

Source excerpt

“some will find the option of personally transcending their biological humanity attractive enough to pursue it clandestinely if it were outlawed--with potential for very ugly confrontations when they are eventually discovered.”

Location in source Section "The Medium Run (around 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 d9c8c362a90f00eccc3e375b92428b7eb05ccad57e0021ab2b9fb9189f0bf55e). Author-hosted HTML headed "The Age of Robots June 1993 by Hans Moravec", "(8500 words)". Earliest capture located: 2000-08-17 (not compared). Printed version not inspected.
Canonical address: Open the canonical source ↗
Accessed: 2026-10-31
Language: English (en)
Attribution: Hans Moravec, “The Age of Robots”, 1993-06.
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 (31 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. Date printed at the head of the author's page; when the page was posted is not stated.

Record ID ht-w04-moravec-1993-age-of-robots