# Inorganic Intelligence Will Evolve for Billions of Years by Martin Rees > “The history of human technological civilization is measured in centuries—and it may be only one or two more centuries before humans are overtaken or transcended by inorganic intelligence, which will then persist and continue to evolve for billions of years.” > **— Martin Rees**, *2016, Edge Annual Question: “WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST INTERESTING RECENT [SCIENTIFIC] NEWS? WHAT MAKES IT IMPORTANT?”* ## Sources and Context - **Direct Edge response and surrounding essay:** [Breakthrough Listen](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/26665) — the official response page preserves this exact, continuous passage and its surrounding argument. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 2016 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2016 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/Deep Time|Deep Time]] - [[wiki/Cosmic View|Cosmic View]] - [[wiki/Species-Level Maturation|Species-Level Maturation]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “The history of human technological civilization is measured in centuries—and it may be only one or two more centuries before humans are overtaken or transcended by inorganic intelligence, which will then persist and continue to evolve for billions of years.” — Martin Rees, 2016, Edge Annual Question: “WHAT DO YOU CONSIDER THE MOST INTERESTING RECENT [SCIENTIFIC] NEWS? WHAT MAKES IT IMPORTANT?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-martin-rees-inorganic-intelligence-billions-years ```