Claim · 1996-12-08 · publication · Stated in source · Supported

The Extropians message “Re: Trans- vs. Non-human” (1996-12-08) contests Y04. He says that an attempt to imprint the Three Laws of Robotics on a Power could and probably would backfire, and that making one goal, the protection of humans, unerasable could turn the Power against humanity.

One recorded claim. The claim panel gives its qualification, the source passages with their place in each source, and how it was checked.

What it connects

Re: Trans- vs. Non-human → contests → A short instruction such as making everyone happy

Where it appears

Eliezer Yudkowsky’s arguments on common claims about AI, 1996–2026 →

Claim and evidence

Re: Trans- vs. Non-humancontests ↓A short instruction such as making everyone happy

Machine-checkedStated in sourceSupported

Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source

Date: 1996-12-08 · publication Records dated 1996 →
Role: Contesting, Earliest located
Register (kind of text): Nonfiction
Engagement: Engages a premise. Under the message-level rule, the passage, read with its message, gives a reason against the premise that a short instruction such as the Three Laws specifies what people want.

Scope and limitsPremise addressed: a short instruction specifies what people want. The instruction discussed is the Three Laws and the protection of humans, not happiness. His alternative in 1996 was ethics the Power would deduce for itself, a view he later abandoned (Y02). Earliest located means the earliest text found by the collection’s searches and the cross-family re-check of 2026-11-02, not a first statement.

The evidence 01

primary sourceSupports the claim

Re: Trans- vs. Non-human (Extropians mailing list)

Extropians mailing list · 1996-12-08

Archived copy, captured 2022-07-01: Re: Trans- vs. Non-human (Extropians mailing list)

Cite the original source

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

Source excerpt

“imprint the Three Laws … probably would backfire HORRIBLY!”

Location in source Message body, paragraph beginning ‘Nuclear war isn’t worth mentioning’

How it was read Retrieved directly from the publisher

Machine-checked · 2026-11-02

Source details and check notes

Authors: Eliezer Yudkowsky
Version: Archive HTML as served, retrieved 2026-10-07 (SHA-256 71eb2c8e94ab52e2075a7582139478b5f27e0854d3dee95685ce87a5210ed750); quoted lines excluded when reading the author’s text. The served archive shows later URL rewriting and does not authenticate historical bytes. Archive at extropians.weidai.com.
Canonical address: Open the canonical source ↗
Accessed: 2026-10-07
Language: English (en)
Archive copy: Open archived copy, captured 2022-07-01: Re: Trans- vs. Non-human (Extropians mailing list). Captured 9336 days after the recorded publication date. An archive copy shows only what the archive retrieved on 2022-07-01. It does not prove what the page said earlier, and it can differ from the copy checked on 2026-10-07.
Attribution: Eliezer Yudkowsky, “Re: Trans- vs. Non-human”, Extropians mailing list, 1996-12-08.
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: Quotation matched on 2026-11-02 against the held source, retrieved on 2026-11-02 from the source’s evidence URL (SHA-256 71eb2c8e94ab52e2075a7582139478b5f27e0854d3dee95685ce87a5210ed750). Matching ignored differences of whitespace, case, quotation marks, dashes and Unicode compatibility forms; “…” joins fragments that occur in order. Cross-family pass: the re-check of 2026-11-02 (review/earliest-located-recheck-2026-11-02.md, role 80) read this text for this proposition and role. Admitted by the maintainer’s decision of 2026-11-02. 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 disputes the proposition or a premise it depends on. The record documents the text’s position, not who is right.

Date. Archive author index lists the message as "Sun, 08 Dec 1996 22:39:23 -0600" under "Eliezer Yudkowsky". Sent header: Sun, 08 Dec 1996 22:39:23 -0600.

Record ID yk-y04-extropians-1996-12-08-yudkowsky-3761-c