Savlar4 sources healthy · latest episode 20 Oct 2026
descriptive claim

The speaker argues that invention often proceeds through experimentation before the relevant theories or machinery are understood, citing the steam engine's development before thermodynamics and the Wright brothers' airplane experiments.

Dwarkesh Patel · AI 2027: month-by-month model of intelligence explosion — Scott Alexander & Daniel Kokotajlo · 3 Apr 2025

In their words

The transcript segments this claim was taken from

“you people are just like trying different random stuff you often even before the theories about how that industry works or how the relevant machinery works is developed like the steam engine was developed before the theory of thermodynamics the right brothers it seems like they're just experimenting with airplanes um uh and is often influenced by breakthroughs in totally different fields which is why you have this pattern of parallel innovation because the you know the the background level of tech is at a point at which you can do this experiment”
Play from 50:08Report a misattribution
85%how strongly it was put, not whether it is true
80%importance to the conversation
91%confidence the claim was read correctly