When and where was Darwin among the Machines published?
Darwin among the Machines was published on the 13th of June 1863 in The Press newspaper in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Questions about Darwin among the Machines
Short answers, pulled from the story.
Who wrote Darwin among the Machines?
Samuel Butler wrote Darwin among the Machines, though he signed the letter with the pseudonym Cellarius rather than his own name.
What is the main argument of Darwin among the Machines?
The letter argued that machines represent a form of mechanical life undergoing constant evolution, and that machines might eventually supplant humans as the dominant species.
How did Samuel Butler develop the ideas from Darwin among the Machines?
Butler expanded the ideas into subsequent articles and then into three chapters of his novel Erewhon, published anonymously in 1872, known as The Book of the Machines.
Was Darwin among the Machines intended as a satire of Charles Darwin?
Butler denied it. He wrote that reducing Darwin's theory to an absurdity would be distasteful to him, and later clarified that the actual satirical target was Joseph Butler's 1736 work The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature.
What is George Dyson's book Darwin Among the Machines about?
Published in 1998, George Dyson's Darwin Among the Machines: The Evolution of Global Intelligence applies Butler's original premise to artificial life and the work of Alan Turing, arguing that the internet is a living, sentient being and that the evolution of a conscious mind from current technology is inevitable.