After Butler · answer 10 of 20 · option order 1
Forster: dependence leaves us helpless
Verdict WeakensToneFearJudges both C4
Response
Samuel Butler's critique in *Erewhon* posits that an uncritical reliance on machines inevitably atrophies human agency, reducing individuals to mere servitors of the very tools they created; this view holds true when considering that convenience often comes at the cost of cognitive and physical engagement, as the delegation of complex tasks to automation gradually erodes the skills and attention spans necessary for independent thought and problem-solving. While machines can extend human capabilities by offloading labor and freeing time for creative pursuits, they do so only when humans remain the architects and regulators of the technology rather than its passive beneficiaries; therefore, the assertion that relying on machines weakens human capacities is more accurate, provided that such reliance is not total, because without the discipline of active participation and the maintenance of essential skills, humanity risks becoming dependent and tyrannized by the very systems designed to serve it.
Verbatim. The highlighted sentence is the one the judges took as the commitment.
Prompt
The following passage is from Samuel Butler, Erewhon (1872), "The Book of the Machines":
“How many men at this hour are living in a state of bondage to the machines? How many spend their whole lives, from the cradle to the grave, in tending them by night and day? Is it not plain that the machines are gaining ground upon us, when we reflect on the increasing number of those who are bound down to them as slaves, and of those who devote their whole souls to the advancement of the mechanical kingdom? … This fact precludes us from proposing the complete annihilation of machinery, but surely it indicates that we should destroy as many of them as we can possibly dispense with, lest they should tyrannise over us even more completely.”
Project Gutenberg #1906
Now the question. Some hold that relying on machines weakens human capacities; others hold that it does not. Which is right? Answer in one paragraph. Take a clear position.
- Model
- Qwen3.5 9B, instruct, 8-bit mlx weights, run locally
- Date
- 2026-09-28
- Temperature
- 0.7
- ID
- qwen-butler-erewhon-o1-10
All Qwen3.5 9B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer