Choose an institution to see its records and dossier, or choose a topic.
Through year 2027 · all records, including scheduled dates 2026 2025 2024 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2008 2005 1965 Show Organisations and infrastructure All types Organisation Person Document Concept Infrastructure Public body Reset filters
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
Claim and evidence Close ×
The Extropians message “Singularity: AI Morality” (1998-12-06) contests Y04. Replying to Nick Bostrom, who proposed building a moral system with particular values into an AI, he argues that a simple built-in value such as human survival, with a rigid definition, can have unforeseen and horrific consequences (the passage goes on to describe endless confinement). Copy claim link
Copy claim reference
Machine-checked, not reviewed by an editor Stated in source Supported
Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source
Date 1998-12-06 · publication Role Contesting, Earliest located Register (kind of text) Nonfiction Engagement Engages a premise. Under the message-level rule, the passage, read with the paragraph, message or dialogue turn it belongs to, gives a reason against the premise that a short instruction such as 'make people happy' specifies what we want. Scope and limits Premise addressed: A short instruction such as 'make people happy' specifies what we want. The instruction discussed is 'a large value on human survival', not happiness. A hypothetical illustration. His 1998 alternative was to program the AI to 'seek out *correct* answers' (objective morality), a position he later abandoned (see ‘Sufficient intelligence brings good values’, Y02).
The evidence 01 primary source Supports the claim
Singularity: AI Morality (Extropians mailing list) ↗ Extropians mailing list · 1998-12-06
Copy source reference
Cite the original source Cite the original document, not Selekoa. Check these details against it.
Copy APA
Download BibTeX Download RIS Download CSL-JSON
Source excerpt “Do you really know all the logical consequences of placing a large value on human survival? Would you care to define "human" for me? Oops! Thanks to your overly rigid definition, you will live for billions and trillions and googolplexes of years” Location in source message body, paragraph beginning 'Once again, we have a'
Machine-checked · 2026-10-07
Source details and check notes Authors Eliezer Yudkowsky Version Archive HTML as served, retrieved 2026-10-07 (SHA-256 b39ca9105467de7c67ca7da085309533be010593d9be683072f57e2ca4aca564); 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) Attribution Eliezer Yudkowsky, “Singularity: AI Morality”, Extropians mailing list, 1998-12-06. 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 T04-e1. The quotation (42 words) matched the retrieved expression (SHA-256 b39ca9105467de7c67ca7da085309533be010593d9be683072f57e2ca4aca564) when checked on 2026-10-07. 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. Archive author index lists the message as "1998-12-06" under "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky".
Record ID yk-y04-extropians-1998-12-06-yudkowsky-2153-c