Day by day, however, the machines are gaining ground upon us; day by day we are becoming more subservient to them; more men are daily bound down as slaves to tend them, more men are daily devoting the energies of their whole lives to the development of mechanical life. The upshot is simply a question of time, but that the time will come when the machines will hold the real supremacy over the world and its inhabitants is what no person of a truly philosophic mind can for a moment question. ~ Samuel Butler, Darwin Among The MachinesIn a later work entitled The Book of the Machines, Samuel Butler goes on to say this:
Reflect upon the extraordinary advance which machines have made during the last few hundred years, and note how slowly the animal and vegetable kingdoms are advancing. The more highly organized machines are creatures not so much of yesterday, as of the last five minutes, so to speak, in comparison with past time.~ Samuel Butler, Darwin Among The MachinesThe works of Samuel Butler are remarkable as they predict thinking machines about 100 years before Moore's Law kicked in and computers started to advance.
| Overview: Darwin Among The Machines | ||
Type | Artificial Intelligence | |
Definition | A 1863 essay that predicts that artificial intelligence and self-replicating machines will supplant humans as a dominant species. | |
Related Concepts | ||
