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Everything about Superintelligence

Hypothetical agent surpassing human intelligence

A superintelligence is a hypothetical agent that possesses intelligence far surpassing that of the most gifted human minds. Philosopher Nick Bostrom defined it in his 2014 book Superintelligence as "any intellect that greatly exceeds the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest". The term is now almost always used to discuss artificial superintelligence (ASI) through continued rapid progress in artificial intelligence, although its arrival through biological superintelligence (BSI) has been a source of interest among scientists, futurists, and authors. Wikipedia →

🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path

  1. Read the overview: SuperintelligenceA 5-minute orientation
  2. Skim a recent paper: Optimising peace through a Universal Global Peace Treaty to constrain the risk of war from a militarised artificial superintelligenceInfluential work since 2022
  3. Pick up a classic book: If Anyone Builds It, Everyone DiesThe most-reprinted book on the subject
  4. Read the landmark paper: Superintelligence Cannot be Contained: Lessons from Computability TheoryCited 51 times
  5. Go sideways: Existential risk from artificial intelligenceA closely related topic
  6. Go sideways: AI capability controlA closely related topic

📖 Definitions

Noun Intelligence far above normal human intelligence.

Noun Machine intelligence completely surpassing human intellect in all domains, incorporating vastly superior reasoning, processing speed, and memory.

🗂️ The subject at a glance

  1. Forms
  2. Superintelligence companies
  3. Forecasts
  4. Design considerations
  5. Opposition to its development

🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)

🆕 Influential since 2022

📚 Books worth reading

Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.

🔗 Related topics