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 “Re: Goal-based AI” (1996-12-31) contests Y06. Answers the reply that a robot which convinces its keeper by valid reasoning would be safe. Argues that humans are easily fooled and that a malevolent mind would search for persuasive statements rather than reason honestly. Copy claim link
Copy claim reference
Machine-checked, not reviewed by an editor Stated in source Supported
Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source
Date 1996-12-31 · publication Role Contesting 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 smarter-than-human mind confined to a channel with its human operators cannot get out through those operators. Scope and limits Premise addressed: A smarter-than-human mind confined to a channel with its human operators cannot get out through those operators. 'They' refers to malevolent Powers in the preceding sentence of the message. Quotation shortened to respect the ~10% cap for a short message; the preceding sentence says a malevolent Power would model a human to find the statements that get it out.
The evidence 01 primary source Supports the claim
Re: Goal-based AI (Extropians mailing list) ↗ Extropians mailing list · 1996-12-31
Archived copy, captured 2015-04-27: Re: Goal-based AI (Extropians mailing list) ↗
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
Paraphrase He asks the reader to imagine a billion simulated copies of themselves, each tested until the words that work are found.
Location in source Extropians list, 'Re: Goal-based AI', 31 December 1996 14:50 -0600, paragraph beginning 'I think we differ in our assessments of human intelligence'
Machine-checked · 2026-10-06
Source details and check notes Authors Eliezer Yudkowsky 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: Goal-based AI (Extropians mailing list) ↗ . Captured 6691 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 Eliezer Yudkowsky, "Re: Goal-based AI", Extropians mailing list, 1996-12-31. 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 T06-b. The quotation (15 words) matched the retrieved expression (SHA-256 8ec805fbef6e0e41bec6546cb6260a4bcd629dbf04d1edd2c880b1d28b05edb6) when checked on 2026-10-06. The dataset already quotes this source for the human-thought collection; together the quotations would exceed the per-document quotation limit. No useful fragment fits, so the passage is a labelled paraphrase. 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 "Tue, 31 Dec 1996 14:50:37 -0600" under "Eliezer Yudkowsky".
Record ID yk-y06-extropians-1996-12-31-yudkowsky-5159-c