# Artificial Subjects Will Grow More Powerful and Complex by Piet Hut > “We have only set the first steps towards building artificial subjects. Just as our current artificial objects are vastly more complex than the first wheel or bow and arrow, our artificial subjects will grow more complex, powerful, and interesting over the centuries. But already we can see a glimmer of what lies ahead: our first attempts to build autonomous agents has taught us new concepts. As a result, we are now beginning to explore self-organizing ecological, economic, or social systems; areas of study where thing-like metaphors hopelessly fail.” > **— Piet Hut**, *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:** [professor of astrophysics at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/10913) — Edge published this exact, continuous passage in its 1999 Annual Question collection, *WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INVENTION IN THE PAST TWO THOUSAND YEARS?*. The response page preserves the surrounding argument and qualifications. - **Complete local collection index:** [[research/Edge 1999 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 1999 Full Quotation Curation]] — retained source-first record for the response cohort and this passage's promotion status. ## 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/Self-Replication|Self-Replication]] - [[wiki/Replicator|Replicator]] - [[wiki/Digital Evolution|Digital Evolution]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “We have only set the first steps towards building artificial subjects. Just as our current artificial objects are vastly more complex than the first wheel or bow and arrow, our artificial subjects will grow more complex, powerful, and interesting over the centuries. But already we can see a glimmer of what lies ahead: our first attempts to build autonomous agents has taught us new concepts. As a result, we are now beginning to explore self-organizing ecological, economic, or social systems; areas of study where thing-like metaphors hopelessly fail.” — Piet Hut, 1999, Edge Annual Question, “WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INVENTION IN THE PAST TWO THOUSAND YEARS?” https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-piet-hut-artificial-subjects-grow-powerful-complex ```