Arthur C. Clarke? Isaac Asimov? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: Machine learning techniques have dramatically increased in power during the twenty-first century. Some contemporary thinkers fear the emergence of artificial intelligence systems which will supersede humankind. Yet, a prominent science fiction author of the previous century espoused a surprising position. The author felt no apprehension when contemplating superintelligent machines. Here are two versions of his remark:
(1) We should regard it as a privilege to be stepping stones to higher things
(2) We should be honored to be stepping stones to higher things.
Both statements have been attributed to Arthur C. Clarke who co-wrote the screenplay for the film “2001: A Space Odyssey”. Would you please help me to find a citation and determine which statement is accurate.
Reply from Quote Investigator: In September 1964 Arthur C. Clarke appeared on the BBC-2 television program “Horizon”. A companion article by Clarke appeared in “The Listener” magazine in October 1964. Clarke discussed a variety of future scenarios. He envisioned major advances in machine intelligence.
The first statement above was spoken by Clarke during the BBC-2 program. The second statement was written by Clarke in “The Listener” article. The following words were spoken during the television program. Boldface added to excepts by QI:1
… the most intelligent inhabitants of that future world won’t be men or monkeys. They’ll be machines—the remote descendants of today’s computers. Now the present-day electronic brains are complete morons, but this will not be true in another generation. They will start to think, and eventually they will completely outthink their makers.
Is this depressing? I don’t see why it should be. We superseded the Cro-Magnon and Neanderthal men, and we presume we’re an improvement. I think we should regard it as a privilege to be stepping stones to higher things. I suspect that organic, or biological, evolution has about come to its end, and we’re now at the beginning of inorganic, or mechanical, evolution, which will be thousands of times swifter.
The text below is from the companion article by Clarke in the October 1964 issue of “The Listener” magazine. Clarke rephrased his spoken statements:2
… the most intelligent inhabitants of that future world will not be men, or animals; they will undoubtedly be machines—the remote descendants of our present computers. For all their speed and the fantastic things they can do, today’s electronic brains are mere imbeciles.
But this will not always be true; in another generation they will start to think, in every sense of the word; and ultimately they will out-think their makers. Is this depressing? I do not see why it would be. We superseded the Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, and consider ourselves an improvement. Why should we expect to be the end of the line? On the contrary; we should be honoured to be stepping stones to higher things.
I suspect, indeed, that we have come to the end of biological or organic evolution; the future belongs to mechanical or inorganic evolution which is thousands of times swifter.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1950 Isaac Asimov published a collection of short stories under the title “I, Robot”. The introduction contained comments from Asimov’s character Susan Calvin who was a robo-psychologist. Calvin praised robots as superior to humans:3
“To you, a robot is a robot. Gears and metal; electricity and positrons——Mind and iron! Human-made! if necessary, human-destroyed! But you haven’t worked with them, so you don’t know them. They’re a cleaner, better breed than we are.”
In December 1964 “The Listener” published a letter from a reader named David Boisseau who responded critically to the viewpoint propounded by Clarke:4
I submit that the real conflict between the ‘two cultures’ lies here: between those like Sir Leon Bagrit and Mr Arthur Clarke who view the automated future with enthusiasm, and those of us who view it with something like dread. And surely it does not require much knowledge of past and present trends, or insight into human nature (including the naivety of many scientists) to feel that those who regard it with dread are the more likely to be right.
In 2025 Stephen Witt published “The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip”. Witt encountered the 1964 “Horizon” video clip of Clarke while he was researching his book. The statements about machine intelligence by Clarke were reprinted in the book.5
In conclusion, Arthur C. Clarke should receive credit for both versions of the statement under examination. He employed them during the September 1964 “Horizon” television program and the October 1964 article in “The Listener”, respectively.
Image Notes: Picture of stepping stones from Henry Perks at Unsplash. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to the anonymous person whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- YouTube video, Title: 1964: ARTHUR C CLARKE predicts the FUTURE, Horizon, Past Predictions, BBC Archive, Uploaded on December 30, 2021, Uploaded by: BBC Archive, (Quotation starts at 4 minutes 20 seconds of 12 minutes 5 seconds), Note: Video clip taken from Horizon: The Knowledge Explosion, originally broadcast on BBC Two, Monday 21 September 1964. (Accessed on youtube.com on May 16, 2026) link ↩︎
- 1964 October 15, The Listener, Volume 72, Number 1855, Fantasies of the future by Arthur Clarke, Start Page 573, Quote Page 574, British Broadcasting Corporation, London. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1950, I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, Section: Introduction, Quote Page 15, Gnome Press, New York. (Verified with facsimile from First Edition Library, Shelton, Connecticut) ↩︎
- 1964 December 10, The Listener, Volume 72, Number 1863, Letters to the Editor, Letter from David Boisseau, Quote Page 941, British Broadcasting Corporation, London. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2025, The Thinking Machine: Jensen Huang, Nvidia, and the World’s Most Coveted Microchip by Stephen Witt, Quote Page 201, Viking: An Imprint of Penguin Random House, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎