Claim: Bostrom’s message of 1996-09-04 says access to a nanotechnology…

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Claim and evidence

Re: Thinking about the future...bears on ↓Fast or hard takeoff

Bostrom’s message of 1996-09-04 says access to a nanotechnology laboratory might be all an AI needs to take off, the contest being over before anyone but the AI had realised it had begun.

Machine-checked, not reviewed by an editorStated in sourceSupported

Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source

Date: 1996-09-04 · publication
Role: Context
Register (kind of text): Nonfiction
Missing element: A rapid "take off" ends a contest before anyone notices, but no period and no "hard" or "fast" takeoff is named.

Scope and limitsA rapid scenario without the criterion’s period.

The evidence 01

primary sourceSupports the claim

Re: Thinking about the future... (Extropians mailing list)

Extropians mailing list · 1996-09-04

Archived copy, captured 2015-04-27: Re: Thinking about the future... (Extropians mailing list)

Cite the original source

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

Paraphrase

Access to a nanotechnology laboratory might be all the AI would need "in order to take off"; the contest would be over before anyone but the AI noticed it had begun.

Location in source Message body, first unquoted paragraph of the reply

Machine-checked · 2026-10-06

Source details and check notes

Authors: Nick Bostrom
Version: Archive HTML as served, retrieved 2026-10-06 with the hash recorded by the 1996–2022 candidate search; quoted lines excluded when reading the author’s text. Archive at extropians.weidai.com.
Canonical address: Open the canonical source ↗
Accessed: 2026-10-06
Language: English (en)
Archive copy: Open archived copy, captured 2015-04-27: Re: Thinking about the future... (Extropians mailing list). Captured 6809 days after the recorded publication date. An archive copy shows only what the archive retrieved on 2015-04-27. It does not prove what the page said earlier, and it can differ from the copy checked on 2026-10-06.
Attribution: Nick Bostrom, "Re: Thinking about the future...", Extropians mailing list, 1996-09-04.
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: Paraphrase, so that the message’s quotation limit covers the A3 and A6 passages; locator corrected after a machine check.

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 bears on the proposition without meeting its criterion; the record names the missing element. It is not an articulation and implies no influence.

Date. Archive receipt: Wed Sep 4 10:09:44 1996 MST. The Sent header is garbled in the archive.

Record ID ts-a4-bostrom-1996-09-04-context

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