Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies

by Nick Bostrom

Inside your cranium is the thing that does the reading. This thing, the human brain, has some capabilities that the brains of other animals lack. It is to these distinctive capabilities that we owe our dominant position on the planet. Other animals have stronger muscles and sharper claws, but we have cleverer brains. Our modest advantage in general intelligence has led us to develop language, technology, and complex social organization. The advantage has compounded over time, as each generation has built on the achievements of its predecessors.

Suppose, for example, that in addition to the systematic effects of natural selection it required an enormous amount of lucky coincidence to produce intelligent life—enough so that intelligent life evolves on only one planet out of every 1030 planets on which simple replicators arise.