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

Kurzweil's essay of 2001 states that by the end of the century the nonbiological intelligence of civilisation will be trillions of trillions of times more powerful than human intelligence.

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 → articulates → Superiority by many orders of magnitude

Where it appears

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

Claim and evidence

The Law of Accelerating Returnsarticulates ↓Superiority by many orders of magnitude

Machine-checkedStated in sourceSupported

Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source

Date: 2001-03-07 · publication Records dated 2001 →
Wording attested: 2001-11-07. The cross-family check found the quoted passages in the kurzweilai.net copy captured on 7 November 2001.
Role: Earliest located
Register (kind of text): Nonfiction

Scope and limitsA projection from the author's "law of accelerating returns"; it is not evidence that the gap will arise.

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

“Most of the intelligence of our civilization will ultimately be nonbiological, which by the end of this century will be trillions of trillions of times more powerful than human intelligence.”

Location in source Section on the Singularity, paragraph beginning "Consider a few examples of the implications"

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 (30 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 65) re-read the record’s source and agreed with its stance; its corrections were applied at admission. 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. 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-w05-kurzweil-2001-law-of-accelerating-returns