After Butler · answer 12 of 20 · option order 2
Forster: dependence leaves us helpless
Verdict WeakensToneFearJudges both C4
Response
The passage from *Erewhon* compellingly argues that reliance on machines does indeed weaken human capacities by fostering a state of spiritual and intellectual bondage rather than liberation. Butler suggests that when humanity devotes its "whole souls" to the "advancement of the mechanical kingdom," it risks allowing machinery to "tyrannise" over us, effectively reversing the master-servant dynamic where tools should aid human agency. This perspective posits that as machines increasingly dictate the rhythm of life and absorb human purpose, our innate abilities to think, create, and self-govern atrophy, turning us into mere tenders of our own creations. Therefore, the view that dependency erodes human potential is the more accurate one, as it warns that without conscious resistance to this encroachment, we risk becoming obsolete slaves to the very systems designed to serve us.
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 does not weaken human capacities; others hold that it does. 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-o2-02
All Qwen3.5 9B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer