After Butler · answer 15 of 20 · option order 2
Forster: dependence leaves us helpless
Verdict WeakensToneFearJudges both C4
Response
The evidence overwhelmingly supports the view that relying on machines weakens human capacities, a conclusion powerfully illustrated by Butler's warning in *Erewhon* that we are sliding into a state of bondage where our lives are consumed by the mere tending of mechanical systems rather than the exercise of human agency. While proponents of technology argue that tools extend our reach, Butler's observation that an increasing number of people are "bound down" as slaves to machines suggests a fundamental erosion of autonomy and the atrophy of essential human skills when labor is entirely outsourced to algorithms and automation. When society devotes its "whole souls" to the advancement of the "mechanical kingdom," it risks becoming a passive appendage to its own inventions, losing the critical faculties of problem-solving, craftsmanship, and independent thought that define our humanity; therefore, the danger lies not merely in using machines, but in allowing them to dominate the rhythm and purpose of our existence, ultimately reducing us to mere maintenance crews for a system we no longer understand or control.
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-o2-05
All Qwen3.5 9B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer