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94 people, organisations and other records · 122 relationships · 34 claims about a valueEverything recorded up to the chosen year, whether or not still in effect · Undated records included
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Michie’s essay divides tasks among human value decisions, machine detail work and cooperation, and expects computers to work as assistants rather than simply as masters or servants. Copy claim link
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Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source
Date 1968 · publication Wording attested 1986. Wording checked in the reprint, chapter 20 of On Machine Intelligence, 2nd edition (1986). The author says little was revised; the 1968 text was not compared. Role Contesting Register (kind of text) Nonfiction Scope of the passage Disputes the servant-or-master framing. Engagement States the contrary. States the contrary forecast that computers will be helpers in a division of labour in which people keep decisions of value, without giving a reason why people could not lose the power to direct or stop them. Scope and limits A contrary forecast, not a demonstration that advanced machines stay controllable.
The evidence 01 primary source Supports the claim
On Machine Intelligence, second edition (chapter 20, "Computer—servant or master") ↗ Ellis Horwood · 1986
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Paraphrase Michie expects computers to function as helpers in a division of labour with people, not as masters or servants.
Location in source Chapter 20, end of printed p. 244 to "Helpers and Hobbies" on p. 246 (PDF pages 249–251)
Machine-checked · 2026-10-06
Source details and check notes Authors Donald Michie Version Scan of the 1986 second edition hosted by gwern.net; imprint page and chapter 20 read by the pre-1996 candidate search. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-06 Language English (en) Attribution Donald Michie, On Machine Intelligence, 2nd edn (Chichester: Ellis Horwood, 1986), chapter 20. Reuse No open redistribution licence asserted. Bibliographic metadata and labelled paraphrases only: the inspected scan is a third-party copy whose permission to host is not established. Phrases in quotation marks inside a paraphrase identify the source's wording. Check notes Paraphrase from 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 disputes the proposition or a premise it depends on. The record documents the text’s position, not who is right.
Date. Year of first publication in Theoria to Theory 2, pp. 242–249, as given in the 1986 reprint’s acknowledgements; the 1968 pages were not retrieved.
Record ID ts-b6-michie-1968-contests