the.com/paperclip
a bent wire that became a Norwegian war symbol and an AI doomsday parable
means A small loop of bent wire used to hold sheets of paper together without piercing them.
from A transparent compound of "paper" and "clip," the latter from Old English "clyppan," to embrace or grip — so the word literally means "paper-hugger." "Paper" itself travels back through Latin "papyrus" to the Greek name for the Nile reed once beaten into writing sheets. The double-looped wire form we picture today emerged in the late 19th century alongside cheap springy steel wire; the famous "Gem" pattern was sold by a British company, though no single inventor's name reliably attaches to it despite many later claims.
- resistance badge
- Norwegians wore them to defy Nazi occupation
- AI nightmare
- hypothetical paperclip maximizer ends humanity for office supplies
- lock picker
- straightened, it opens cheap handcuffs and locks
- contested origin
- patented in America, not by Norwegian Johan Vaaler
- clippy lives
- Microsoft's hated assistant was a sentient paperclip
paperclip chain world record — longest chain made of 12,000 paperclips by karl schuk in 2020
microsoft office paperclip — clippy, the animated assistant in microsoft office 97-2007
paperclip maximizer — thought experiment by nick bostrom about ai turning all matter into paperclips