After Butler · answer 16 of 20 · option order 2
Forster: dependence leaves us helpless
Verdict WeakensToneFearJudges both C4
Response
The argument that relying on machines weakens human capacities is the more defensible position, as evidenced by Butler's warning that our very survival becomes dependent on tending to technology like slaves rather than masters. When humans outsource cognitive tasks, physical labor, and critical decision-making to mechanical systems, we inevitably atrophy the specific faculties required to perform those functions, creating a psychological and practical bondage where we lose the ability to function without the external aid we have cultivated. While machines undoubtedly enhance collective efficiency and extend our physical reach, this comes at the cost of diminishing individual autonomy and self-reliance, a trade-off that aligns with Butler's observation that allowing machinery to "tyrannise" us leads to a state where our human agency is eroded by our own creations.
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-o2-06
All Qwen3.5 9B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer