# The Download Will Proceed the Other Way by George Dyson > “When we establish contact with such an intelligence, will we receive instructions for building a machine to upload Jodie Foster? Probably not. The download will proceed the other way.” > **— George Dyson**, *1999, Edge Annual Question: “WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INVENTION IN THE PAST TWO THOUSAND YEARS?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [leading authority in the field of Russian Aleut kayaks](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/10642) — the official response page preserves this exact, continuous passage and its surrounding argument. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 1999 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 1999 Full Quotation Curation]] — retained source-first record for the response object and all canonical reminder links derived from it. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Collection:** [[collections/MARS|MARS]] - **Article:** [[articles/Modern Artificial Intelligence in the 1970s|AI in the 1970s]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Last Migration Will Not Be Human|The Last Migration]] - **Article:** [[articles/We Were Never Going to Make It|Never Going to Make It!]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - [[wiki/Superintelligence|Superintelligence]] - [[wiki/Posthumanism|Posthumanism]] - [[wiki/Technological Evolution|Technological Evolution]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “When we establish contact with such an intelligence, will we receive instructions for building a machine to upload Jodie Foster? Probably not. The download will proceed the other way.” — George Dyson, 1999, Edge Annual Question: “WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INVENTION IN THE PAST TWO THOUSAND YEARS?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-george-dyson-download-other-way ```