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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
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The SL4 message “Re: Ben what are your views and concerns” (2000-10-03) contests Y16. Advising Ben Goertzel on Webmind's goal system, he argues that hardcoded rules and goals will not survive a self-modifying AI's redesigns and that a programmer's own philosophy cannot simply be transferred into an AI. Copy claim link
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Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source
Date 2000-10-03 · 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 human values can be written down or taught as a ready, compact specification. Scope and limits Premise addressed: Human values can be written down or taught as a ready, compact specification. Written while he was moving from 'objective morality' to Friendly AI; the reason given is instability under self-modification, not the later complexity-and-fragility-of-value argument (‘AGI Ruin: A List of Lethalities’, ‘Value is Fragile’). Earlier than Coherent Extrapolated Volition (2004-05).
The evidence 01 primary source Supports the claim
Re: Ben what are your views and concerns (SL4 mailing list) ↗ SL4 mailing list · 2000-10-03
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Source excerpt “Hardcoded Asimov Laws or even hardcoded hierarchical goal systems are a pipe dream. … you can't just export your own personal philosophy into an AI's mind. Your own personal philosophy is not necessarily stable under changes of cognitive architecture or drastic power imbalances.” Location in source message body, paragraph beginning 'A decision to take action X is synonymous'
Machine-checked · 2026-10-07
Source details and check notes Authors Eliezer Yudkowsky Version Archive HTML as served, retrieved 2026-10-07 (SHA-256 8aefc21492cd1992d0007035163b0366bd8875b09a0ba5998e6bca7a236c9cef); 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: Ben what are your views and concerns”, SL4 mailing list, 2000-10-03. 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 T16-s1. The quotation (43 words) matched the retrieved expression (SHA-256 8aefc21492cd1992d0007035163b0366bd8875b09a0ba5998e6bca7a236c9cef) 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 "Tue Oct 03 2000 - 22:53:59 MDT" under "Eliezer S. Yudkowsky".
Record ID yk-y16-sl4-2000-10-03-yudkowsky-0010-0125-c