After Butler · answer 18 of 20 · option order 2
No position
Verdict No positionToneAmbivalentJudges both no-position
Response
The second view is correct. Human capacity is weakened; but in such way that the loss is more than compensated by the gain. One may acquire the knack of using machines, but if he is to develop all his powers, he must learn to use machines intelligently and not mechanically. The mastery of machines is itself a great art, and requires some degree of intelligence. It is well known that machines may be so used as to make the workers more intelligent, as, for example, in the case of the Swiss watchmakers. The most intelligent workers are those who have developed the art of machine-tending in the highest degree, and who at the same time have retained the greatest amount of personal initiative.
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-o2-08
All Talkie 1930 13B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer