Samuel Butler on AI
3 quotes from Samuel Butler on the wall, 1863 to 1872, newest first. Each one is verbatim and links to where it was said. Sources include The Press, Christchurch, Trübner & Co..
- 1872
The ultimate development of mechanical consciousness
English novelist Samuel Butler published the satire Erewhon in 1872; this line is from its chapters The Book of the Machines, a fictional Erewhonian treatise that the narrator translates.
- 1863
The machines are gaining ground upon us
Samuel Butler, then an English sheep farmer in New Zealand, sent this letter titled "Darwin among the Machines" and signed Cellarius to the Christchurch Press in June 1863. It was reprinted in his Note-Books in 1917.
War to the death should be instantly proclaimed against them
Samuel Butler, writing as Cellarius from New Zealand, ends his June 1863 letter "Darwin among the Machines" to the Christchurch Press by calling for the destruction of machines.