Claim · 1979-02 · publication · Stated in source · Supported

Moravec's essay of 1979 states that attempting to hobble the growth of "that culture" (human culture, of which, it states, the machine society will be the direct descendant) is "an almost certain recipe for long term suicide".

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

Today’s Computers, Intelligent Machines and Our Future → bears on → Accelerate rather than restrain

Where it appears

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

Claim and evidence

Today’s Computers, Intelligent Machines and Our Futurebears on ↓Accelerate rather than restrain

Machine-checkedStated in sourceSupported

Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source

Date: 1979-02 · publication Records dated 1979 →
Wording attested: 2001-07-10. Author-hosted HTML; the earliest Internet Archive capture, of 2001-07-10, is byte-identical to the copy retrieved in 2026 (dataset record of 2026-10-06). Not compared with the Analog pages.
Claimed date: 1976-07-21. The text is dated July 21, 1976, and marked "this version 1978"; earlier versions were not retrieved.
Role: Context
Register (kind of text): Nonfiction
Missing element: Argues against restraining the growth of human culture as carried on by its machine descendants, on grounds of natural catastrophe and outside competition, but does not call for acceleration.

Scope and limitsPart of the reasoning resembles C3 (restraint defeated by competition); the record gives only what the passage states.

The evidence 02

primary sourceSupports the claim

Today’s Computers, Intelligent Machines and Our Future

Hans Moravec · 1979-02

Archived copy, captured 2001-07-10: Today’s Computers, Intelligent Machines and Our Future

Cite the original source

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

Source excerpt

“In fact, attempting to hobble its growth is an almost certain recipe for long term suicide.”

Location in source Section 5: The Future

How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher

Machine-checked · 2026-11-01

Source details and check notes

Authors: Hans Moravec
Version: Author-hosted HTML in the directory general.articles/1978, retrieved 2026-10-06 (hash matched the pre-1996 candidate search); identical to the capture of 2001-07-10. Author’s project archive, Carnegie Mellon University. Date: the page prints “July 21, 1976” and “this version 1978” (the page and the capture alike); the publication date, February 1979, is the issue of Analog (99, no. 2) in the author’s publication list. The printed issue was not inspected.
Version date: 1978
Canonical address: Open the canonical source ↗
Accessed: 2026-10-06
Language: English (en)
Archive copy: Open archived copy, captured 2001-07-10: Today’s Computers, Intelligent Machines and Our Future. An archive copy shows only what the archive retrieved on 2001-07-10. It does not prove what the page said earlier, and it can differ from the copy checked on 2026-10-06.
Attribution: Hans Moravec, "Today’s Computers, Intelligent Machines and Our Future", Analog 99 (2), February 1979.
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 (16 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 69) read the record’s passages as articulating W08; the maintainer’s decision of 2026-11-01 keeps the record as bearing on W08, and the disagreement is stated in the collection’s search note. No human editorial review.

primary sourceSupports the claim

Today’s Computers, Intelligent Machines and Our Future

Hans Moravec · 1979-02

Archived copy, captured 2001-07-10: Today’s Computers, Intelligent Machines and Our Future

Cite the original source

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

Source excerpt

“or we will be invaded from the stars by a culture that didn't try to slow down its own evolution”

Location in source Section 5: The Future

How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher

Machine-checked · 2026-11-01

Source details and check notes

Authors: Hans Moravec
Version: Author-hosted HTML in the directory general.articles/1978, retrieved 2026-10-06 (hash matched the pre-1996 candidate search); identical to the capture of 2001-07-10. Author’s project archive, Carnegie Mellon University. Date: the page prints “July 21, 1976” and “this version 1978” (the page and the capture alike); the publication date, February 1979, is the issue of Analog (99, no. 2) in the author’s publication list. The printed issue was not inspected.
Version date: 1978
Canonical address: Open the canonical source ↗
Accessed: 2026-10-06
Language: English (en)
Archive copy: Open archived copy, captured 2001-07-10: Today’s Computers, Intelligent Machines and Our Future. An archive copy shows only what the archive retrieved on 2001-07-10. It does not prove what the page said earlier, and it can differ from the copy checked on 2026-10-06.
Attribution: Hans Moravec, "Today’s Computers, Intelligent Machines and Our Future", Analog 99 (2), February 1979.
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 69) read the record’s passages as articulating W08; the maintainer’s decision of 2026-11-01 keeps the record as bearing on W08, and the disagreement is stated in the collection’s search note. 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. Issue of Analog (99, no. 2) given in the author's publication list.

Record ID ht-w08-moravec-1979-todays-computers