Claim · 2000-04 · publication · Stated in source · Supported

Joy's article of 2000 states that the only realistic alternative he sees is relinquishment: limiting development of technologies "that are too dangerous", among which he includes robotics.

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

Why the Future Doesn't Need Us → contests → Accelerate rather than restrain

Where it appears

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

Claim and evidence

Why the Future Doesn't Need Uscontests ↓Accelerate rather than restrain

Machine-checkedStated in sourceSupported

Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source

Date: 2000-04 · publication Records dated 2000 →
Role: Earliest located, Contesting
Register (kind of text): Nonfiction
Engagement: Engages a premise. Gives a reason for restraint: the risks of the named technologies are unmanageable and no defence can be built in time.

Scope and limitsJoy's relinquishment concerns genetics, nanotechnology and robotics together, not machine intelligence alone.

The evidence 01

primary sourceSupports the claim

Why the Future Doesn't Need Us

Wired (wired.com) · 2000-04

Cite the original source

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

Source excerpt

“The only realistic alternative I see is relinquishment: to limit development of the technologies that are too dangerous, by limiting our pursuit of certain kinds of knowledge.”

Location in source Paragraph beginning "These possibilities are all thus either undesirable or unachievable or both"

How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher

Machine-checked · 2026-11-01

Source details and check notes

Authors: Bill Joy
Version: The essay as served by Wired at wired.com, which dates the page 1 April 2000 for the magazine issue of April 2000; the deck above the essay is the magazine's. Its wording can change; earlier wording is not authenticated. Retrieved at admission on 2026-10-31 (SHA-256 05e86cb7b852e1bc4d9c9517652bd261a4e7e4de3a3b5df90f8f02fb31ae568e).
Canonical address: Open the canonical source ↗
Accessed: 2026-10-31
Language: English (en)
Attribution: Bill Joy, “Why the Future Doesn't Need Us”, 2000-04.
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 (27 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 12) 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. Wired 8.04, April 2000.

Record ID ht-w08-joy-2000-why-the-future-doesnt-need-us