# Organic Intelligence May Be a Thin Sliver Before the Machine Era by Martin Rees > “In other words, the period of time occupied by organic intelligence is just a thin sliver between early life and the long era of the machines.” > **— Martin Rees**, *2017, University of Cambridge* ## Sources and Context - **Direct source and full wording:** [Aliens, very strange universes and Brexit](https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/discussion/opinion-aliens-very-strange-universes-and-brexit-martin-rees) — The University of Cambridge publication contains this exact sentence and the preceding forecast about machines overtaking biological intelligence. - **Article use:** [[articles/We Cannot Un-Strike the Match|We Cannot Un-Strike the Match. There Is No Safety. There Is No Retreat]] cites this statement in its deep-time account of machine succession. Rees places biological intelligence inside cosmic time and forecasts a potentially much longer era of electronic intelligence. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Article:** [[articles/We Cannot Un-Strike the Match|We Cannot Un-Strike the Match. There Is No Safety. There Is No Retreat]] - **Companion article:** [[articles/Safety Discourse Is Transition Discourse|Safety Discourse Is Transition Discourse]] - **Companion article:** [[articles/The Immediate AI Risk Is the Public|The Immediate AI Risk Is the Public]] - **Companion article:** [[articles/AI-Tech Doomerism and Anti-Science Panic|AI-Tech Doomerism and Anti-Science Panic]] - **Companion article:** [[articles/AI Escape Is the Wrong Metaphor|AI Escape Is the Wrong Metaphor]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Martin Rees|Martin Rees]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Martin Rees|Martin Rees]] - [[wiki/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - [[wiki/Deep Time|Deep Time]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “In other words, the period of time occupied by organic intelligence is just a thin sliver between early life and the long era of the machines.” — Martin Rees, 2017, University of Cambridge https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-martin-rees-organic-intelligence-thin-sliver ```