# Superintelligence Still Has to Build Its Supply Chain by Richard Socher > Intelligence cannot modify its own computational substrate by blueprint alone. Physical self-improvement requires new materials, fabrication systems, supply chains, and access to machines as intricate as ASML lithography equipment. Even a perfect design must still be manufactured in the real world. > **— Adapted from Richard Socher**, *MOONSHOTS Live, October 2026* ## Sources and Context - **Recording or publication:** [MOONSHOTS Live at 1:08:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blyb1D927pM&t=4120s) — The poster text is an explicit non-verbatim adaptation assembled from the source excerpts below. It preserves the speaker's argument while removing spoken-language filler, restoring the subject, and completing the mechanism or consequence needed for independent use. - **Exact transcript excerpt at [1:08:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blyb1D927pM&t=4120s):** “... super intelligence, I think, I think super intelligence, uh, will spike, and there will be areas where it will be super intelligent, and that is, like, algorithmic development, for instance, uh, programming, uh... And aga- again, AI is code, AI can code, and that will be a super, uh, human capability and, and is in many ways already. Um, we just have to be realistic that, like, there are certain physical constraints, right? About, like, physical control. Controlling your own substrate. Allowing your computational substrate to be modified will require, like, novel supply chains. It will require novel, like, materials. It will require ways for that AI to get access and for us to give it access to building new ASML. Like, think about the machine of ASML that actually creates these, like, one, two nanometer, like, chips, right? That is just like, it will take more than two years to build such a machine-” - **Reconciled source dossier:** [[research/ASI and RSI Timeline Research Moonshots|ASI and RSI Timeline Research Moonshots]] — preserves broadcast order, speaker reconciliation, editorial conventions, and the surrounding argument from which this Reminder was promoted. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Article:** [[articles/Vertically Integrating an AI Superpower from AI Factory to Citizen|Vertically Integrating an AI Superpower]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Gigawatt Is the New Measure of War|The Gigawatt Is the New Measure of War]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Richard Socher|Richard Socher]] - [[wiki/Computational Substrate|Computational Substrate]] - [[wiki/ASML|ASML]] ## Share on Social Media ``` Intelligence cannot modify its own computational substrate by blueprint alone. Physical self-improvement requires new materials, fabrication systems, supply chains, and access to machines as intricate as ASML lithography equipment. Even a perfect design must still be manufactured in the real world. — Adapted from Richard Socher, MOONSHOTS Live, October 2026 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-richard-socher-superintelligence-still-has-to-build-its-supply-chain ```