Claim · 1989-09 · publication · Stated in source · Supported

Moravec's essay of 1989 places machine evolution in a sequence running from Darwinian evolution through learning to cultural evolution, which it states "accelerated itself further through the invention of information machinery". It states that once machine minds match human ones, culture will be able to break free of its "limiting Darwinian roots".

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

After Life → articulates → Machine intelligence as a physical or cosmic process

Where it appears

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

Claim and evidence

After Lifearticulates ↓Machine intelligence as a physical or cosmic process

Machine-checkedStated in sourceSupported

Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source

Date: 1989-09 · publication Records dated 1989 →
Wording attested: 1999-11-10. The cross-family check found the archive capture of 10 November 1999 byte-identical to the copy read.
Role: Earliest located
Register (kind of text): Nonfiction

Scope and limitsAdapted from Mind Children, per the page.

The evidence 02

primary sourceSupports the claim

After Life

Hans Moravec (author-hosted HTML, Carnegie Mellon University project archive) · 1989-09

Cite the original source

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

Source excerpt

“Machine evolution has been proceeding steadily since the industrial revolution, and invites extrapolation to a time when the minds built by our hands will be a match for those that grow in our skulls. When that happens, our culture will be able to break free of its limiting Darwinian roots”

Location in source Opening paragraph

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 d9cdeba72b5376e21c1ace052ac4bcf5e1a4773134a8bbc84dbbbaa2de035679). Author-hosted HTML printing "© 1989 by Hans Moravec" and "This article is adapted from the author's book Mind Children: the future of robot and human intelligence, Harvard University Press, October 1988". Earliest capture located: 1999-11-10 (not compared).
Canonical address: Open the canonical source ↗
Accessed: 2026-10-31
Language: English (en)
Attribution: Hans Moravec, “After Life”, 1989-09.
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 (50 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. No human editorial review.

primary sourceSupports the claim

After Life

Hans Moravec (author-hosted HTML, Carnegie Mellon University project archive) · 1989-09

Cite the original source

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

Source excerpt

“Cultural evolution accelerated itself further through the invention of information machinery, and in modern technical society this process is rediscovering in years techniques that took biological evolution millions to find.”

Location in source Opening paragraph

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 d9cdeba72b5376e21c1ace052ac4bcf5e1a4773134a8bbc84dbbbaa2de035679). Author-hosted HTML printing "© 1989 by Hans Moravec" and "This article is adapted from the author's book Mind Children: the future of robot and human intelligence, Harvard University Press, October 1988". Earliest capture located: 1999-11-10 (not compared).
Canonical address: Open the canonical source ↗
Accessed: 2026-10-31
Language: English (en)
Attribution: Hans Moravec, “After Life”, 1989-09.
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. 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. Informal report of September 1989, per the author's publication list.

Record ID ht-w09-moravec-1989-after-life