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Moravec's lecture transcript of 1989 states that a "bush robot" with a trillion fingers would have a potential data rate more than a quadrillion times the thousand bits per second at which, it states, a well-trained human could affect the world, and calls such a device "an entirely different order of being". Copy claim link
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Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source
Date 1989-12 · publication Records dated 1989 → Wording attested 2026-10-31. Wording read in the copy retrieved on 2026-10-31; the availability API reported no Internet Archive capture of this address. Not compared with any printed version. Claimed date 1989-03. The author's file header gives "March 1989". Role Context Register (kind of text) Nonfiction Missing element The stated factor compares manipulative data rate with a well-trained human's, not intelligence or overall capacity. Scope and limits The section is footnoted as adapted from Mind Children.
The evidence 02 primary source Supports the claim
The Robot as Liberation from Human Nature ↗ Hans Moravec (author-hosted LaTeX file); the author's publication list gives it as the transcript of the 1989 Hull Memorial Lecture, Interactions 10, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, December 1989, pp. 32-42 · 1989-12
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Source excerpt “The potential data rate of a robot with one trillion fingers, each able to move a million times per second, is more than a quadrillion” Location in source Section "New Bodies"
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 ba6e4f226341ccdbd0f0f83c27b98d527751e46a0c07b636dab4899c9cfeadd4). Author-hosted LaTeX file whose header gives "March 1989". It opens with the lecture text and continues with sections that repeat material of the 1988 Genetic Takeover file, ending with a footnote "Adapted from the author's book Mind Children". No capture located; printed version not inspected. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-31 Language English (en) Attribution Hans Moravec, “The Robot as Liberation from Human Nature”, 1989-12. 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. The cached text renders the following "(10^15)" as "(1015)". A cross-family machine check (2026-11-01, item 97) read the record’s passages as articulating W05 under its wording then; the maintainer’s decision of 2026-11-01 clarified the criterion (capacity means intelligence or overall cognitive capacity) and keeps the record as bearing on W05. No human editorial review. primary source Supports the claim
The Robot as Liberation from Human Nature ↗ Hans Moravec (author-hosted LaTeX file); the author's publication list gives it as the transcript of the 1989 Hull Memorial Lecture, Interactions 10, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, December 1989, pp. 32-42 · 1989-12
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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 “A trillion-limbed device, with a brain to match, is an entirely different order of being.” Location in source Section "New Bodies"
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 ba6e4f226341ccdbd0f0f83c27b98d527751e46a0c07b636dab4899c9cfeadd4). Author-hosted LaTeX file whose header gives "March 1989". It opens with the lecture text and continues with sections that repeat material of the 1988 Genetic Takeover file, ending with a footnote "Adapted from the author's book Mind Children". No capture located; printed version not inspected. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-31 Language English (en) Attribution Hans Moravec, “The Robot as Liberation from Human Nature”, 1989-12. 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 (15 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 97) read the record’s passages as articulating W05 under its wording then; the maintainer’s decision of 2026-11-01 clarified the criterion (capacity means intelligence or overall cognitive capacity) and keeps the record as bearing on W05. 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. Interactions 10, December 1989, per the author's publication list.
Record ID ht-w05-moravec-1989-robot-as-liberation