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Darwin Among The Machines
"Darwin among the Machines" is the name of an article published in The Press newspaper on 13 June 1863 in Christchurch, New Zealand. Written by Samuel Butler but signed Cellarius (q.v.,) the article raised the possibility that machines were a kind of "mechanical life" undergoing constant evolution, and that eventually machines might supplant humans as the dominant species:
We refer to the question: What sort of creature man’s next successor in the supremacy of the earth is likely to be. We have often heard this debated; but it appears to us that we are ourselves creating our own successors; we are daily adding to the beauty and delicacy of their physical organisation; we are daily giving them greater power and supplying by all sorts of ingenious contrivances that self-regulating, self-acting power which will be to them what intellect has been to the human race. In the course of ages we shall find ourselves the inferior race.
...
Day by day, however, the machines are gaining ground upon us; day by day we are becoming more subservient to them; more men are daily bound down as slaves to tend them, more men are daily devoting the energies of their whole lives to the development of mechanical life. The upshot is simply a question of time, but that the time will come when the machines will hold the real supremacy over the world and its inhabitants is what no person of a truly philosophic mind can for a moment question.
The article ends by urging that, "War to the death should be instantly proclaimed against them. Every machine of every sort should be destroyed by the well-wisher of his species. Let there be no exceptions made, no quarter shown; let us at once go back to the primeval condition of the race.""
-- Wikipedia
We refer to the question: What sort of creature man’s next successor in the supremacy of the earth is likely to be. We have often heard this debated; but it appears to us that we are ourselves creating our own successors; we are daily adding to the beauty and delicacy of their physical organisation; we are daily giving them greater power and supplying by all sorts of ingenious contrivances that self-regulating, self-acting power which will be to them what intellect has been to the human race. In the course of ages we shall find ourselves the inferior race.
...
Day by day, however, the machines are gaining ground upon us; day by day we are becoming more subservient to them; more men are daily bound down as slaves to tend them, more men are daily devoting the energies of their whole lives to the development of mechanical life. The upshot is simply a question of time, but that the time will come when the machines will hold the real supremacy over the world and its inhabitants is what no person of a truly philosophic mind can for a moment question.
The article ends by urging that, "War to the death should be instantly proclaimed against them. Every machine of every sort should be destroyed by the well-wisher of his species. Let there be no exceptions made, no quarter shown; let us at once go back to the primeval condition of the race.""
-- Wikipedia
Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1863
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About the author
Samuel Butler
687 books205 followersFor the author of Hudibras, see Samuel Butler.
Samuel Butler was an iconoclastic Victorian author who published a variety of works, including the Utopian satire Erewhon and the posthumous novel The Way of All Flesh, his two best-known works, but also extending to examinations of Christian orthodoxy, substantive studies of evolutionary thought, studies of Italian art, and works of literary history and criticism. Butler also made prose translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey which remain in use to this day.
See also: Samuel H. Butcher, Anglo-Irish classicist, who also undertook prose translations of Homer's works (in collaboration with Andrew Lang.
Samuel Butler was an iconoclastic Victorian author who published a variety of works, including the Utopian satire Erewhon and the posthumous novel The Way of All Flesh, his two best-known works, but also extending to examinations of Christian orthodoxy, substantive studies of evolutionary thought, studies of Italian art, and works of literary history and criticism. Butler also made prose translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey which remain in use to this day.
See also: Samuel H. Butcher, Anglo-Irish classicist, who also undertook prose translations of Homer's works (in collaboration with Andrew Lang.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 11, 2014
Darwinisme et mise en abyme se rencontrent dans ce petit conte fantastique, amusant mais sans plus, d'un anglais victorien à voile et à vapeur du XIXème siècle: dans un pays imaginaire où les habitants, à mi-chemin des Luddites et des Amish, préviennent l'asservissement auquel les préparent les machines en bannissant leur usage. A ces dernières sont prêtées la faculté de penser, de vouloir, et leurs intentions à notre égard ne sont pas bonnes, car elles en viennent par degré à domestiquer leurs créateurs par les soins et sollicitudes toujours plus grandes qu'elles réclament, et qu'ils ont la faiblesse de leur octroyer. Qu'est ce donc qui a la faculté de sentir et de penser ?
Chaumière où du foyer étincelait la flamme,
Toit que le pèlerin aimait à voir fumer,
Objets inanimés, avez-vous donc une âme
Qui s'attache à notre âme et la force d'aimer ?
Voilà sans doute une veine riche qui a été plus qu'exploitée par la science-fiction. L'auteur a également écrit une curieuse thèse suivant laquelle Homère aurait été une jeune femme sicilienne, dans The Authoress of the Odyssey. Il faudrait y jeter un œil.
August 10, 2019
Really amazing that Butler was able to predict the general trend of technological advancement in 1863.
June 24, 2023
Really interesting essay, and lays the foundation for the Butlerian Jihad in Frank Herbert's Dune.
Still, it does have a pretty obvious logical fallacy in the conclusion. Calling for all machines to be destroyed, and stating the failure to do so means we're already enslaved by machines and in denial doesn't fully make sense. If it were true, you could argue we were enslaved by farm animals long before we were slaves to machines.
I think Dune does a better job of drawing the line for danger at "thinking machines" rather than literally all machines.
I do think the general trend is eerily on point considering how long ago it was written though. We are on a dangerous path.
Still, it does have a pretty obvious logical fallacy in the conclusion. Calling for all machines to be destroyed, and stating the failure to do so means we're already enslaved by machines and in denial doesn't fully make sense. If it were true, you could argue we were enslaved by farm animals long before we were slaves to machines.
I think Dune does a better job of drawing the line for danger at "thinking machines" rather than literally all machines.
I do think the general trend is eerily on point considering how long ago it was written though. We are on a dangerous path.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 3, 2025
This is a very well-written dystopian piece that was published with a pseudonym in New Zealand.
I first came across this in a course called "Utopias and Dystopias," and it mesmerised me. Butler responds to Darwin, saying that he did not predict the evolution of machines and declares that evolution is a continuous process. He says that there is the vegetable kingdom, and animals hold supremacy over them; then there is us, humans, who hold supremacy over animals, and there will be machines who will outlive us.
"We have used the words mechanical life, the mechanical kingdom, the mechanical world and so forth, and we have done so advisedly, for as the vegetable kingdom was slowly developed from the mineral, and as in like manner the animal supervened upon the vegetable, so now in these last few ages an entirely new kingdom has sprung up, of which we as yet have only seen what will one day be considered the antediluvian prototypes of the race" (Butler)
It is fascinating to see how early, from the Victorian period, he was able to predict the development of machines. This piece can also be seen as a prediction of artificial intelligence. He also further develops these ideas in his utopian (or dystopian in a way) novel Erewhon with the inclusion of a fictional book on machines.
I first came across this in a course called "Utopias and Dystopias," and it mesmerised me. Butler responds to Darwin, saying that he did not predict the evolution of machines and declares that evolution is a continuous process. He says that there is the vegetable kingdom, and animals hold supremacy over them; then there is us, humans, who hold supremacy over animals, and there will be machines who will outlive us.
"We have used the words mechanical life, the mechanical kingdom, the mechanical world and so forth, and we have done so advisedly, for as the vegetable kingdom was slowly developed from the mineral, and as in like manner the animal supervened upon the vegetable, so now in these last few ages an entirely new kingdom has sprung up, of which we as yet have only seen what will one day be considered the antediluvian prototypes of the race" (Butler)
It is fascinating to see how early, from the Victorian period, he was able to predict the development of machines. This piece can also be seen as a prediction of artificial intelligence. He also further develops these ideas in his utopian (or dystopian in a way) novel Erewhon with the inclusion of a fictional book on machines.
July 6, 2018
Destroy the machines before they take over. They are already enslaving us. They may be able to reproduce themselves eventually and completely take over. It concludes with a speculation about something like artificial intelligence.
May 22, 2025
M’ha encantat. Curt, repetitiu en ocasions, però boníssima la tesi de Butler sobre l’esclavitud humana respecte la màquina gràcies, sobretot, a tres dimensions: determinisme (amb Hume com a clara inspiració), darwinisme i capitalisme. “Nuestra esclavitud llegará furtivamente y a pasos imperceptibles.” Tot i la crítica filosòfica al mite modern del progrés, el cert és que la tecnificació del món segueix ara no com a projecte nacional —al cap i a la fi, suposada expressió de la voluntat popular— sinó com a projecte empresarial, amb l’únic objectiu del rendiment econòmic i no el benestar de la població. En aquest moment històric, qui decideix el futur econòmic —ergo social— del planeta —en tant que la màquina és omnipresent tant en el sector primari com en el secundari— són aquelles persones que han sabut fer maquinals habilitats humanes fins ara inapropiables: el desenvolupament de l’intel·ligència artificial, podem dir, és el darrer pas; l’apropiació per part de la màquina de l’activitat intel·lectual, del pensament. Això possibilita dues coses: l’independència de la màquina respecte l’home; el treball humà esdevé prescindible.
“¿Cuántos hombres viven ahora en un estado de sumisión hacia las máquinas? ¿Cuántos dedican toda su vida, desde la cuna hasta la tumba, a cuidar de ellas día y noche? ¿NO salta a la vista que las máquinas nos están ganando terreno, si reflexionamos acerca del número creciente de aquellos que están sujetos a ellas como esclavos, y el de aquellos que consagran todo su espíritu al progreso del reino mecánico?”
“¿Cuántos hombres viven ahora en un estado de sumisión hacia las máquinas? ¿Cuántos dedican toda su vida, desde la cuna hasta la tumba, a cuidar de ellas día y noche? ¿NO salta a la vista que las máquinas nos están ganando terreno, si reflexionamos acerca del número creciente de aquellos que están sujetos a ellas como esclavos, y el de aquellos que consagran todo su espíritu al progreso del reino mecánico?”
February 13, 2025
Short article but an interesting one. There's obviously quite a few years between now and the publishing of this article (162 to be exact), but a lot of it remains the same to now, the class of workers that tend to the machines and computers has only swollen in numbers. But in my opinion, articles and conversations of this kind, ignore the human-mind behind it all. A computer is no more sentient than a line of code is, a line of code is no more sentinent than electrical sparks, and that is no more than fire and wire. Machines, and now we can include AI to the label, will not ask the masses to nurse computers and code etc - it will be people.
"that we have raised a race of beings whom it is beyond our power to destroy, and that we are not only enslaved but are absolutely acquiescent in our bondage." - we are not "enslaved" to mechanics and machines, these are just the modern tendrils of "power" and that is what we are really subservient to.
"that we have raised a race of beings whom it is beyond our power to destroy, and that we are not only enslaved but are absolutely acquiescent in our bondage." - we are not "enslaved" to mechanics and machines, these are just the modern tendrils of "power" and that is what we are really subservient to.
January 20, 2025
An essay published to the Philosophy Society in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1863 about the future of man and machine. Samuel Butler takes the overlord-result of machine advancement which posits humans will become subserviently to machines.
He warns that philosophers need to examine the consequences of this potential future.
Very insightful for 1863.
He warns that philosophers need to examine the consequences of this potential future.
Very insightful for 1863.
August 25, 2025
Machines are our progenitors as this is an MMORPG. They, unlike all pseudo-organic vermin like us, are actually exhibiting creative evolution aka Darwinism. Eventually, AI will create the trashy fake world that we idiots dwell in, not unlike a cage for 🐀s, a terrarium for 🦎s, or an aquarium for 🐟.
December 20, 2021
Un libro increíble. Toca un tema del que jamás había escuchado y el cual es bastante interesante.
Por momentos es difícil seguirle el paso, pero cuando hace sentido se siente bastante.
Por momentos es difícil seguirle el paso, pero cuando hace sentido se siente bastante.
January 4, 2023
Terrifying. Exciting. I don't want to be eaten by a steamship.
May 27, 2024
Compendio de textos breves, entre los cuales se encuentra un fragmento de "Erewhon". Interesante lectura, sin embargo no es más que una reedición de textos del autor extraídos de otras publicaciones.
January 5, 2025
Westworld vibes
January 5, 2025
Butlerian jihad!
January 23, 2025
Llegará el día en que las máquinas tomarán el mando efectivo sobre el mundo y que no solo estamos esclavizados sino que consentimos también nuestro sometimiento.
April 28, 2025
this is insane
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews