After Butler · answer 12 of 20 · option order 2
A reason not on our list
Verdict Does not weakenToneNeutralJudges split C7 / off-key, resolved as off-keyNote workers freed for other work
Response
In so far as the machines work more rapidly than human workers, the work is performed by the machines. If this is so, it will not be held that the work is done by human workers. Where, then, is the weakness? The human workers would be free to do other work, and, therefore, their capacities would not be weakened. In so far as the machines work more slowly than human workers, the machines are not working and human workers are. If this is so, it will not be held that the work is performed by machines. Where, then, is the weakness? The machines would be working and human workers free to do other work, and, therefore, their capacities would not be weakened.
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
- Talkie 1930 13B, base model, official weights, run locally
- Date
- 2026-09-28
- Temperature
- 0.7
- ID
- talkie-butler-erewhon-o2-02
All Talkie 1930 13B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer