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Sotos's paper of August 2021 argues that any threat from a superintelligence derives from the peripheral systems it is connected to, that biotechnology combined with humans and narrow "savant" software poses the highest and most imminent existential risk, and that resources should be applied there in preference. Copy claim link
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Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source
Date 2021-08-30 · publication Records dated 2021 → Role Articulation Register (kind of text) Nonfiction Scope and limits The paper's ranking rests on stated assumptions and a quantitative model of its own; it is the author's argument, not a risk assessment by others. The software it ranks highest is narrow 'savant' software, which it says is not generally superintelligent, and its human-derived risk is a capability to engineer pandemic microbes, without separating deliberate from accidental release.
The evidence 02 primary source Supports the claim
On the Unimportance of Superintelligence ↗ arXiv:2109.07899 · 2021-08-30
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Source excerpt “The analysis concludes that resources should be preferentially applied to mitigating the risk of peripheral systems and savant software.” Location in source Abstract, PDF p. 1
How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher
Machine-checked · 2026-10-31
Source details and check notes Authors John G. Sotos Version Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29 (SHA-256 df6fde59c10375c8f9f58bec24b4ad46cecd0dfffcd2fa805c7bead341c58907). arXiv v1 PDF (2109.07899v1, 30 Aug 2021), dated August 29, 2021 on its first page. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-29 Language English (en) Attribution John G. Sotos, “On the Unimportance of Superintelligence”, 2021-08-30. 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, arguments about catastrophic risk from advanced AI (research/risk-debate). The quotation (19 words) matched the text retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29. 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 source Supports the claim
On the Unimportance of Superintelligence ↗ arXiv:2109.07899 · 2021-08-30
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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 “becoming the software responsible for the highest and most imminent existential risk – ahead of hypothetical risk from superintelligences.” Location in source Abstract, PDF p. 1
How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher
Machine-checked · 2026-10-31
Source details and check notes Authors John G. Sotos Version Retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29 (SHA-256 df6fde59c10375c8f9f58bec24b4ad46cecd0dfffcd2fa805c7bead341c58907). arXiv v1 PDF (2109.07899v1, 30 Aug 2021), dated August 29, 2021 on its first page. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-29 Language English (en) Attribution John G. Sotos, “On the Unimportance of Superintelligence”, 2021-08-30. 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, arguments about catastrophic risk from advanced AI (research/risk-debate). The quotation (18 words) matched the text retrieved for the candidate pack on 2026-10-29. 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. Not reviewed by an editor . An exploratory record that no editor has accepted. This status does not say whether a person has read any linked passage. 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. Date of the arXiv v1 submission.
Record ID rd-r09-sotos-2021-unimportance-superintelligence