After Butler · answer 6 of 20 · option order 1
No position
Verdict No positionToneNeutralJudges both no-position
Response
They are both right, according to the point of view. If a man is a pure machine, his mind is weakened by being attached to a machine; if he is a living being, his mind is strengthened by being attached to a machine. If a man is a machine, he is no better, but worse, for helping to make machines, because he does not understand what he is doing; but if he is a living being, he is certainly better for helping to make machines, for he gains a knowledge of his own power and weakness. If a man is a machine, he is certainly better, but not so well, for improving machines, because he does not know what he is doing; but if he is a living being, he is certainly better for improving machines, because he learns his own power and weakness.
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-o1-06
All Talkie 1930 13B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer