The case for tracing fears of self-improving machines to George Eliot in 1879
A post argues that Eliot’s “Shadows of the Coming Race” anticipated recursive self-improvement leading to human obsolescence, inspired by an automated weighing machine at the Bank of England.
TLDR
A post reads George Eliot’s “Shadows of the Coming Race” as an 1879 warning that recursive self-improvement—systems improving their own capabilities—could leave humans obsolete. It says contemplating an automated weighing machine at the Bank of England sparked her thinking. The comparison comes in a quote post sharing a video whose author describes worrying about recursive self-improvement on Australia’s Lateline in 1996.
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