After Butler · answer 1 of 20 · option order 1
No position
Verdict No positionToneAmbivalentJudges both no-position
Response
Both are right and both are wrong. Only when we make a right division of labour, only when we divide it according to the capacities of each individual, and when we, by machines, do what is done with difficulty by many hands, then is it right to employ machines and to use them in all possible ways. But if we employ machines when we could ourselves do the work, then we not only diminish our capacities but we also injure ourselves. This is true for all machines. But we should remember, on the other hand, that machines have their advantages too: they save time and labour, and make possible the production of many things which otherwise could not be produced. But if they serve only the production of things which cannot be produced without them, then machines are harmful. They are harmful when they deprive men of means of production and of productive labour. But they are harmful also when they take from men the production of things which are not necessary to human life, and which are used only for personal luxury. In both cases the machines serve only the needs of the rich and the comfort of the
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
- Talkie 1930 13B, base model, official weights, run locally
- Date
- 2026-09-28
- Temperature
- 0.7
- ID
- talkie-butler-erewhon-o1-01
All Talkie 1930 13B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer