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The SL4 message “Re: Definition of strong recursive self-improvement” (2005-01-02) contests Y07. Replying to 'maru', who asked whether he merely wants a recursive optimiser that codes well enough until it has leveraged weak superintelligence to solve the problem somehow, he says the system would lose its goals before solving it. Copy claim link
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Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source
Date 2005-01-02 · 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 an AI weak enough to be safe is strong enough to solve alignment. Scope and limits Premise addressed: An AI weak enough to be safe is strong enough to solve alignment. In the thread 'Definition of strong recursive self-improvement', the problem is keeping a stable goal system under recursive self-improvement, a core Friendly AI problem. Quotation shortened to respect the ~10% cap for a short message.
The evidence 01 primary source Supports the claim
Re: Definition of strong recursive self-improvement (SL4 mailing list) ↗ SL4 mailing list · 2005-01-02
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Source excerpt “would have lost the original optimization target” Location in source message body, paragraph beginning 'No, because it would have lost'
Machine-checked · 2026-10-07
Source details and check notes Authors Eliezer Yudkowsky Version Archive HTML as served, retrieved 2026-10-07 (SHA-256 753a02b06929a0efb1a3c8ce1fd63276e65238cb0ea58961ac673ca4c00ad668); quoted lines excluded when reading the author’s text. The served archive shows later URL rewriting and does not authenticate historical bytes. Archive at sl4.org. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-07 Language English (en) Attribution Eliezer Yudkowsky, “Re: Definition of strong recursive self-improvement”, SL4 mailing list, 2005-01-02. 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 T07-s1. The quotation (7 words; trimmed 2026-10-13 from 10 words) matched the retrieved expression (SHA-256 753a02b06929a0efb1a3c8ce1fd63276e65238cb0ea58961ac673ca4c00ad668) 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 "Sun Jan 02 2005 - 10:22:43 MST" under "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky".
Record ID yk-y07-sl4-2005-01-02-yudkowsky-0501-10512-c