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Propositions by author · 3 propositions · 22 records · 18 texts

Antecedent texts: machine intelligence before 1965

Which located texts state, contest or bear on three propositions about machines that recur before 1965: that a machine can only do what it is ordered to do, that a machine could think, and that machine intelligence will bring a singularity? For each proposition, which text is the earliest located?

Each row is one text’s stance on one proposition, as a stored record states it: articulates, contests or bears on. A stance belongs to the text, not to its author. Rows are in date order, which records no influence between texts. Authors appear as the texts’ own bylines print them, pseudonyms included. “Earliest located” marks only a text the collection’s records name as the earliest the searches found.

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UA · Whether machines can think or originate

U01 A machine can only do what it is ordered to do

  1. Articulates · Earliest locatedL. F. Menabrea (memoir); A. A. L. (translation and notes; attributed to Ada Lovelace)Notes by the translator to L. F. Menabrea’s Sketch of the Analytical Engine1843 · publishedInspect the record ↗
  2. Contests · Earliest locatedAlan M. TuringLecture to the London Mathematical Society1947-02-20Inspect the record ↗
  3. ContestsAlan TuringIntelligent Machinery (National Physical Laboratory report)1948Inspect the record ↗
  4. ArticulatesDouglas R. HartreeCalculating Instruments and Machines1949 · publishedInspect the record ↗
  5. Contests · Earliest located use of the name “Lady Lovelace's objection”A. M. TuringComputing Machinery and Intelligence1950-10 · publishedInspect the record ↗
  6. ContestsAlan M. TuringCan Digital Computers Think?1951Inspect the record ↗
  7. ContestsAlan M. TuringIntelligent Machinery, a Heretical Theory1951Inspect the record ↗
  8. ContestsArthur L. SamuelSome Studies in Machine Learning Using the Game of Checkers1959-07 · publishedInspect the record ↗
  9. ContestsNorbert WienerSome Moral and Technical Consequences of Automation1960-05-06 · publishedInspect the record ↗
  10. ContestsByline not recordedCybernetics, second edition: supplementary chapters IX–X1961 · published · wording attested 2019Inspect the record ↗

U02 A machine could think

  1. Contests · Earliest locatedPublished without the author’s name (René Descartes)Discours de la methode pour bien conduire sa raison, & chercher la verité dans les sciences1637 · publishedInspect the record ↗
  2. Articulates · Earliest located · SatiricalCellarius (Samuel Butler)Darwin among the Machines1863-06-13 · publishedInspect the record ↗
  3. Articulates · FictionSamuel Butler (published anonymously)Erewhon, or Over the Range1872 · publishedInspect the record ↗
  4. Articulates · FictionKarel Čapek; Paul Selver (English version); Nigel Playfair (English version)R. U. R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots), English version by Paul Selver and Nigel Playfair1923 · wording attested 2019Inspect the record ↗
  5. ArticulatesAlan M. TuringLecture to the London Mathematical Society1947-02-20Inspect the record ↗
  6. ContestsGeoffrey JeffersonThe Mind of Mechanical Man (Lister Oration)1949-06-25 · published · claimed 1949-06-09Inspect the record ↗
  7. Bears onA. M. TuringComputing Machinery and Intelligence1950-10 · publishedInspect the record ↗
  8. ArticulatesAlan M. TuringCan Digital Computers Think?1951Inspect the record ↗
  9. ArticulatesAlan M. TuringIntelligent Machinery, a Heretical Theory1951Inspect the record ↗
  10. ArticulatesА. Н. Колмогоров (A. N. Kolmogorov)Письмо А. И. Бергу (Letter to A. I. Berg)1961 · wording attested 2023Inspect the record ↗

UB · A point beyond which human affairs could not continue

U03 Machine intelligence will bring a singularity

  1. Articulates · Earliest locatedVernor VingeFirst Word1983-01 · publishedInspect the record ↗
  2. ArticulatesVernor VingeThe Coming Technological Singularity: How to Survive in the Post-Human Era1993-12 · publishedInspect the record ↗