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The Extropians message “Re: IA vs. AI (vs. humanity)” (1999-08-03) contests Y11. Replying to Jeff Davis, who expected a government project to wake and train an AI cautiously and gradually inside layers of containment, so that runaway self-improvement would be unlikely, he says runaway growth follows from self-enhancement itself, not from social arrangements, and that containment cannot keep it slow. Copy claim link
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Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source
Date 1999-08-03 · 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 capability gains will be gradual and visible. Scope and limits Premise addressed: Capability gains will be gradual and visible. 'Transcend' is his 1990s term for the passage to superintelligence. The same message rejects building controls into the AI as technically impossible, a position he later abandoned; the quoted paragraph concerns only takeoff speed.
The evidence 01 primary source Supports the claim
Re: IA vs. AI (vs. humanity) (Extropians mailing list) ↗ Extropians mailing list · 1999-08-03
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Source excerpt “The runaway self-evolution business is a technical artifact, not a social one. It's the nature of self-enhancement. … a slow Transcend only works for as long as you can convince the Transcendee to remain slow.” Location in source message body, paragraph beginning 'The runaway self-evolution business is a technical artifact'
Machine-checked · 2026-10-07
Source details and check notes Authors Eliezer Yudkowsky Version Archive HTML as served, retrieved 2026-10-07 (SHA-256 9234ee148973e0bf6feb236801e09f00eea8907cb862e91a55a64f3d6e2b08a8); 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, “Re: IA vs. AI (vs. humanity)”, Extropians mailing list, 1999-08-03. 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 T11-e2. The quotation (35 words) matched the retrieved expression (SHA-256 9234ee148973e0bf6feb236801e09f00eea8907cb862e91a55a64f3d6e2b08a8) 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 "1999-08-03" under "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky". Sent header: Tue, 03 Aug 1999 15:02:17 -0500.
Record ID yk-y11-extropians-1999-08-03-yudkowsky-1487-c