# Human Superintelligence Is the Path to Retaining Human Agency by Vitalik Buterin > “If you accept that superintelligence is going to run the world—because superintelligence is just so much more powerful than regular intelligence that it’s just obvious that it’s going to do that—then the question is: is it AI superintelligence, or is it human superintelligence? Human superintelligence seems like the correct answer if we want to retain our agency. And if we want human superintelligence, then the question is, what is the path to actually getting there?” > **— Vitalik Buterin**, *80,000 Hours interview, July 26, 2024* ## Sources and Context - **Primary source:** [80,000 Hours’ complete interview transcript with Vitalik Buterin](https://80000hours.org/podcast/episodes/vitalik-buterin-techno-optimism/) — verifies the wording, attribution and immediate source setting. - **Interpretive context:** Buterin distinguishes human superintelligence from an autonomous machine superintelligence and makes retained agency the criterion for choosing between them. In the surrounding discussion, augmentation and merger are not consumer enhancements; they are routes by which people might remain participants in the trajectory of civilization. - **Editorial treatment:** A conversational opening referring to “that future” has been trimmed. The remaining three sentences are contiguous and preserve Buterin’s condition, question, answer, and next research problem. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Consciousness Continuity|Consciousness Continuity]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Neurotech|Neurotech]] - **Article:** [[articles/Sam Altman and The Merge|The Merge: A Message in a Bottle from Sam Altman]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Next Interface Layer|The Next Interface Layer]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Transhumanism|Transhumanism]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Vitalik Buterin|Vitalik Buterin]] - [[wiki/Human Superintelligence|Human Superintelligence]] - [[wiki/Human Agency|Human Agency]] - [[wiki/Transhumanism|Transhumanism]] - [[wiki/Human-Machine Merger|Human-Machine Merger]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “If you accept that superintelligence is going to run the world—because superintelligence is just so much more powerful than regular intelligence that it’s just obvious that it’s going to do that—then the question is: is it AI superintelligence, or is it human superintelligence? Human superintelligence seems like the correct answer if we want to retain our agency. And if we want human superintelligence, then the question is, what is the path to actually getting there?” — Vitalik Buterin, 80,000 Hours interview, July 26, 2024 https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-vitalik-buterin-human-superintelligence-human-agency ```