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Kolmogorov’s letter to A. I. Berg (1961) restates theses of his lecture ‘Automata and life’ as he had formulated them for the magazine Tekhnika — molodezhi: if being alive or able to think is defined purely functionally, for example by counting as thinking a material system with which one can reasonably discuss problems of science or literature, then the artificial creation of living and thinking beings must be recognised as feasible in principle. Copy claim link
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Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source; Context: primary · 1 source
Date 1961 · event Records dated 1961 → Wording attested 2023. The wording is read in a typeset edition of 2023; the editors report an earlier publication of the letter (Novosibirsk, 2001), not seen. They also say the theses were printed separately before the lecture and opened the collection Vozmozhnoe i nevozmozhnoe v kibernetike; neither was seen. Role Articulation Register (kind of text) Nonfiction Scope and limits Conditional on a functional definition of thinking. The fourth thesis says that real successes of cybernetics on this path are much more modest than popular books suggest. The commentary contrasts Berg’s statement of 1962 that machines do not think and never will; that statement is relayed by the commentary and is not recorded.
The evidence 02 primary source Supports the claim
Письмо А. И. Бергу [Letter to A. I. Berg], with an editorial commentary ↗ PDF of pp. 199–203 (part III, ‘Кибернетика. Семиотика. Эстетика’) of a MCCME publication, hosted at biblio.mccme.ru; typeset 2023 (PDF creation date 2023-04-24). The volume’s title is not shown in the excerpt. The commentary says the letter was published earlier from A. A. Lyapunov’s papers (Novosibirsk, 2001). · 1961 · In Russian (ru)
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Source excerpt “то придется признать в принципе вполне осуществимым ИСКУССТВЕННОЕ СОЗДАНИЕ живых и мыслящих существ.” Location in source p. 199, letter, thesis 3
How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher
Machine-checked · 2026-11-04
Source details and check notes Authors А. Н. Колмогоров (A. N. Kolmogorov) Version Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-11-02 (SHA-256 eec6cd59ee6fa5c2fa9daa103a40fa109aac3bdba865a7376ff95d5023d60591) and again at admission on 2026-11-04 (same file). A later typeset edition of the letter (2023 PDF); the 2001 publication and the original letter were not seen. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-11-04 Language Russian (ru) Attribution А. Н. Колмогоров (A. N. Kolmogorov), “Письмо А. И. Бергу [Letter to A. I. Berg], with an editorial commentary”, 1961. 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, antecedent texts (research/prehistory). The quotation (13 words) matched a fresh retrieval of 2026-11-04 (SHA-256 eec6cd59ee6f…, the file the candidate pack read). Matching ignored differences of whitespace, case, quotation marks, dashes, line-break hyphens and Unicode compatibility forms, so the source’s typography can differ. English: ‘then one will have to recognise as fully feasible in principle the ARTIFICIAL CREATION of living and thinking beings.’ The condition precedes it in the same sentence: if being ‘alive’ or able to ‘think’ is defined purely functionally. No human editorial review. primary source Context only
Письмо А. И. Бергу [Letter to A. I. Berg], with an editorial commentary ↗ PDF of pp. 199–203 (part III, ‘Кибернетика. Семиотика. Эстетика’) of a MCCME publication, hosted at biblio.mccme.ru; typeset 2023 (PDF creation date 2023-04-24). The volume’s title is not shown in the excerpt. The commentary says the letter was published earlier from A. A. Lyapunov’s papers (Novosibirsk, 2001). · 1961 · In Russian (ru)
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Source excerpt “Системы из очень большого числа элементов, каждый из которых действует чисто «арифметически», могут приобретать качественно новые свойства.” Location in source p. 199, letter, thesis 2
How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher
Machine-checked · 2026-11-04
Source details and check notes Authors А. Н. Колмогоров (A. N. Kolmogorov) Version Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-11-02 (SHA-256 eec6cd59ee6fa5c2fa9daa103a40fa109aac3bdba865a7376ff95d5023d60591) and again at admission on 2026-11-04 (same file). A later typeset edition of the letter (2023 PDF); the 2001 publication and the original letter were not seen. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-11-04 Language Russian (ru) Attribution А. Н. Колмогоров (A. N. Kolmogorov), “Письмо А. И. Бергу [Letter to A. I. Berg], with an editorial commentary”, 1961. 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, antecedent texts (research/prehistory). The quotation (17 words) matched a fresh retrieval of 2026-11-04 (SHA-256 eec6cd59ee6f…, the file the candidate pack read). Matching ignored differences of whitespace, case, quotation marks, dashes, line-break hyphens and Unicode compatibility forms, so the source’s typography can differ. English: ‘Systems of a very large number of elements, each of which acts purely “arithmetically”, can acquire qualitatively new properties.’ Context: a thesis about modelling life and thought. 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. Undated letter; 1961 is the editors’ dating (p. 201), from the lecture of spring 1961 and the magazine’s issues of October and November 1961. Exact day unknown.
Record ID pre-u02-kolmogorov-1961-letter