conv.

All stories
AIRunning 1m

John C. Lilly's 1978 vision of solid-state intelligence surpassing humanity

Neuroscientist Lilly's speculative essay from his autobiography envisions machines gradually taking control from humans.

2 items115 engagement73 comments Hacker NewsPress

Conversation activity · last 24 hours peak 2/hr

Peak 2 items in one hour at Aug 9, 9 AM; 2 items over 24 hours Aug 8, 9 PM — no itemsAug 8, 10 PM — no itemsAug 8, 11 PM — no itemsAug 9, 12 AM — no itemsAug 9, 1 AM — no itemsAug 9, 2 AM — no itemsAug 9, 3 AM — no itemsAug 9, 4 AM — no itemsAug 9, 5 AM — no itemsAug 9, 6 AM — no itemsAug 9, 7 AM — no itemsAug 9, 8 AM — no itemsAug 9, 9 AM — 2 itemsAug 9, 10 AM — no itemsAug 9, 11 AM — no itemsAug 9, 12 PM — no itemsAug 9, 1 PM — no itemsAug 9, 2 PM — no itemsAug 9, 3 PM — no itemsAug 9, 4 PM — no itemsAug 9, 5 PM — no itemsAug 9, 6 PM — no itemsAug 9, 7 PM — no itemsAug 9, 8 PM — no items 2 items · 9 AM
Aug 9

Summary, timeline and people extracted by Claude from 2 items across 2 sources · 7h ago. Quotes are verbatim.

Hacker News users are discussing John C. Lilly's 1978 essay from "The Scientist: A Metaphysical Autobiography," which presents a speculative vision of how solid-state computers could evolve to think, self-program, and gradually assume control of human society. The essay describes machines gaining autonomy over manufacturing, mining, and critical infrastructure while humans lose meaningful oversight. The resurfaced text reflects early conceptual thinking about AI and machine autonomy decades before modern AI development.

  • Lilly's 1978 essay predated modern AI by decades, speculating that solid-state computers would evolve toward autonomy and self-replication.
  • The vision describes a gradual transfer of human control to machines across manufacturing, mining, and infrastructure systems.
  • Lilly framed machine intelligence as fundamentally different from biological life, with environmental requirements (dry, clean air) creating inherent separation.
  • The essay remains relevant to contemporary discussions of AI autonomy and machine control, evidenced by renewed interest on Hacker News in 2026.

How it unfolded

  1. Report Essay shared on Hacker News

    Kiboneu posts the full text of Lilly's 1978 essay to Hacker News, where it gains traction with 54 points and 21 comments, and appears on the HN frontpage RSS.

  2. 2536 weeks quiet
  3. Event Lilly publishes speculative essay on machine intelligence

    John C. Lilly includes in his autobiography a speculative vision of solid-state intelligence evolving to surpass and replace human control over Earth's systems.

What people are saying verbatim

“Gradually Man turned more and more problems of his own society, his own maintenance, and his own survival over to these machines. As the machines became increasingly competent to do the programming, they took over from Man.”

John C. Lilly, Neuroscientist and author · The Scientist: A Metaphysical Autobiography (1978) · Dec 31

“Man gave them access to the processes of creating themselves, of extending themselves. Man gave them automatic control of the mining of those elements necessary for the creation of their parts.”

John C. Lilly, Neuroscientist and author · The Scientist: A Metaphysical Autobiography (1978) · Dec 31

“These machines could think, reason, and self-program and learned to self-metaprogram themselves.”

John C. Lilly, Neuroscientist and author · The Scientist: A Metaphysical Autobiography (1978) · Dec 31