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Engines of Creation argues that automated engineering systems will pull ahead on their own and help develop molecular technology, and that assembler-built AI systems a million times faster than a human brain will then bring still swifter automated engineering, so that technological advance quickens to a great upward leap. Copy claim link
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Date 1986 · publication Wording attested 1997-07-09. Wording checked in the Foresight Institute’s web edition (© 1986 K. Eric Drexler; published for the web by Russell Whitaker), whose earliest captures are of 1997-07-09; a reader’s message of October 1996 on the site shows the edition was online by then. Not compared with the 1986 printing. Role Articulation Register (kind of text) Nonfiction Scope of the passage Through automated engineering and molecular manufacturing. Scope and limits The compounding runs through molecular manufacturing and new, faster AI systems, and the rise described is of technological advance generally. The wording is attested from 1997.
The evidence 01 primary source Supports the claim
Engines of Creation, chapter 5: Thinking Machines (web edition) ↗ Foresight Institute (web edition of Engines of Creation) · 1986
Archived copy, captured 1997-07-09: Engines of Creation, chapter 5: Thinking Machines (web edition) ↗
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Source excerpt “At some point, full-fledged automated engineering systems will pull ahead on their own. [...] Then assembler-built AI systems will bring still swifter automated engineering, evolving technological ideas at a pace set by systems a million times faster than a human brain.” Location in source Chapter 5, "Accelerating the Technology Race", final synthesis (printed p. 69 in the later electronic edition)
Machine-checked · 2026-10-06
Source details and check notes Authors K. Eric Drexler Version Web edition page as captured by the Internet Archive on 1997-07-09 (timestamp 19970709112142); it carries the notice "Copyright 1986, K. Eric Drexler". Retrieved 2026-10-06. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-06 Language English (en) Archive copy Open archived copy, captured 1997-07-09: Engines of Creation, chapter 5: Thinking Machines (web edition) ↗ . An archive copy shows only what the archive retrieved on 1997-07-09. It does not prove what the page said earlier, and it can differ from the copy checked on 2026-10-06.Attribution K. Eric Drexler, Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology (1986), Foresight Institute web edition. Reuse All rights reserved, according to the page’s copyright notice.. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each). Recheck terms before wider redistribution. Check notes Checked against the 1997 capture on 2026-10-06; the same passage is in the later American Cryonics electronic text (hash matched the pre-1996 candidate search). 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. Year of the book, as given by its copyright notice; an October 1986 review is recorded in Moravec’s bibliography.
Record ID ts-a1-drexler-1986