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Kelly's post of 2017 argues that intelligence is not a single dimension, so that "smarter than humans" is meaningless, and that there is no evidence that intelligence can expand without limit far above the human level. Copy claim link
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Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source
Date 2017-04-27 · publication Records dated 2017 → Role Earliest located, Contesting Register (kind of text) Nonfiction Engagement Engages a premise. Disputes the premises that intelligence is a single scale on which machines could rise far above humans and that the scale has no limit near the human level. Scope and limits Kelly states that he could be wrong and that a superhuman AI has a probability "greater than zero"; he expects AIs to exceed humans in many dimensions but not all.
The evidence 03 primary source Supports the claim
The Myth of a Superhuman AI ↗ The Technium (author's blog, kk.org); also published in Wired, April 2017 (not retrieved) · 2017-04-27
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Source excerpt “Intelligence is not a single dimension, so "smarter than humans" is a meaningless concept.” Location in source List of five "heresies", item 1
How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher
Machine-checked · 2026-11-01
Source details and check notes Authors Kevin Kelly Version Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29 (SHA-256 ab690aebf8528f12b249ba1a5c6ef28a1aa1eec29bdb27b6e287893db80ce8ab). Author's blog copy dated April 27, 2017, retrieved 2026-10-29; the Wired version was not compared. The cross-family check retrieved it again on 2026-10-31; the bytes differ, and the check compared the quoted passages. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-29 Language English (en) Attribution Kevin Kelly, “The Myth of a Superhuman AI”, 2017-04-27. 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 (14 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 48) classified the record’s passage blind and reached the same stance. No human editorial review. primary source Supports the claim
The Myth of a Superhuman AI ↗ The Technium (author's blog, kk.org); also published in Wired, April 2017 (not retrieved) · 2017-04-27
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Source excerpt “We tend to believe that the limit is way beyond us, way "above" us, as we are "above" an ant.” Location in source Section 4
How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher
Machine-checked · 2026-11-01
Source details and check notes Authors Kevin Kelly Version Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29 (SHA-256 ab690aebf8528f12b249ba1a5c6ef28a1aa1eec29bdb27b6e287893db80ce8ab). Author's blog copy dated April 27, 2017, retrieved 2026-10-29; the Wired version was not compared. The cross-family check retrieved it again on 2026-10-31; the bytes differ, and the check compared the quoted passages. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-29 Language English (en) Attribution Kevin Kelly, “The Myth of a Superhuman AI”, 2017-04-27. 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 (20 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 48) classified the record’s passage blind and reached the same stance. No human editorial review. primary source Supports the claim
The Myth of a Superhuman AI ↗ The Technium (author's blog, kk.org); also published in Wired, April 2017 (not retrieved) · 2017-04-27
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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 “Why do we believe that intelligence is something that can continue to expand forever?” Location in source Section 4
How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher
Machine-checked · 2026-11-01
Source details and check notes Authors Kevin Kelly Version Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29 (SHA-256 ab690aebf8528f12b249ba1a5c6ef28a1aa1eec29bdb27b6e287893db80ce8ab). Author's blog copy dated April 27, 2017, retrieved 2026-10-29; the Wired version was not compared. The cross-family check retrieved it again on 2026-10-31; the bytes differ, and the check compared the quoted passages. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-29 Language English (en) Attribution Kevin Kelly, “The Myth of a Superhuman AI”, 2017-04-27. 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 (14 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 48) 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. 27 April 2017, the date in the footer of the author's blog post.
Record ID ht-w05-kelly-2017-myth-of-a-superhuman-ai