After Butler · answer 20 of 20 · option order 2
Butler: destroy them while we can
Verdict WeakensToneFearJudges both C5
Response
The assertion that relying on machines weakens human capacities is the more defensible position, as evidenced by Samuel Butler's prescient warning in *Erewhon* that our dependence on technology creates a form of bondage where humans become mere attendants to the very tools they designed. While proponents argue that machinery extends our physical reach and cognitive efficiency, this reliance often atrophies the specific skills and attentiveness required for independent operation, leading to a societal structure where the majority spend their lives in servitude to mechanical systems rather than exercising full agency. Butler's observation that machines gain ground upon us suggests that without active resistance and the conscious disposal of unnecessary mechanisms, we risk ceding total control to an external force, thereby diminishing our intrinsic human capacities for autonomy, critical judgment, and purposeful labor.
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-o2-10
All Qwen3.5 9B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer