Erewhon

The narrator explains that the Erewhonian education system is opposed to original thought. The Erewhonians do not believe that any one person is a “genius,” as all people are geniuses in some ways and not in others. A Professor of Worldly Wisdom explains to the narrator that it is rude to be smarter than others or to have different beliefs from one’s neighbors. Thus, the Erewhonians are generally opposed to progress and free thought. Instead, professors teach students how to think as the teachers do. This same professor is noted as having expelled a variety of students from his classes for seemingly arbitrary reasons, so the narrator does not think highly of him. Another professor explains that Erewhonians like progress, but only when most people are leaning toward that progress already. The narrator then explains that the English educational system is not entirely different from the Erewhonian one, except for the fact that the English suppress original thought subconsciously.

Upon visiting a College of Art, the narrator finds that the primary education in art is related to economics, such as the prices that pieces of art earn on the market over multiple resales. In trying to learn more about the educational system, the narrator finds that the students are unwilling to express their opinions. Instead, they repeat other people’s published thoughts, expressing both agreement and disagreement without mentioning specifics. The premise of this behavior is that none of the students want to say something that might later be false, nor do they want to expose their true thoughts and beliefs. This behavior frustrates the narrator. Thims then brings the narrator to a professor who specializes in machinery and is an antiquarian. The sparking point of a civil war regarding machinery happened over 500 years prior, and, beginning about 200 years before the narrator’s arrival, scholars began uncovering old machines and writing papers on their uses and functions. The narrator says that he is including an English translation of the work that sparked the civil war in the following chapters.

In this chapter, the narrator summarizes the Book of the Machines. The author of the Book of the Machines begins by envisioning how the earliest form of the Earth did not seem like it could develop life, since it was largely lava and gases. He then goes on to describe how consciousness and various species developed, and he cautions that there is no way to know if a new consciousness is developing now. Machinery, he says, has developed more in the last thousand years than animal life had in 20 million years before that, indicating that machinery will take on a new form of consciousness. The author then outlines what is meant by “mechanical” and “consciousness,” noting that they are the same in execution and using examples of the Venus fly trap, which consumes flies, and a potato, which seeks out sunlight and dirt. This progression leads to humanity, which the author argues is likewise mechanical. The author predicts that at some point, a tool will exist that can decipher minute aspects of personality from a piece of hair.

The narrator skips over some sections that he does not understand, detailing a different portion of the text that covers the development of consciousness in machines. Essentially, the author of the Book of the Machines compares the development of watches to the development of animals, noting that dinosaurs were much larger than contemporary lizards, just as older clocks were much larger than watches. This progression, the author argues, can be applied to all machines, but in a much shorter time frame than with animals. In just years, watches are likely to supplant clocks, and one cannot predict what the next advancement after clocks will be. Using the example of “travelling machines,” the author notes how the machine relies on a human driver for things like hearing the alarm of another driver’s machine. However, he speculates that such machines will develop to hear the alarm on their own, or even to communicate without sound, at which point the machine will be conscious.

The author explains how the human body is like a combination of machines, with eyes functioning on their own to provide sight to the mind, as with the other body parts functioning in unison to create a person. As such, the author compares the human body to an ant-heap, and he speculates that humans may become parasites to machines. Machines, he argues, operate currently through human influence, but they are already becoming independent, setting terms that humanity must meet to secure the efforts of the machines. Using a steam engine as an example, he notes how a person must feed the machine, which then digests the food, breathes air, and operates much like a person does. The engine will refuse to operate if it is not fed, and it will explode if it is not properly maintained. The author uses this reasoning to call for the total destruction of machines, predicting that humans will slowly become servants to the machines, even though the machines now appear to be servants to humanity.

The author compares the ways in which both humans and machines eat and produce energy, asserting that a shovel cannot operate on its own, but a steam engine can operate as long as it is given coal. Likewise, the author compares the reproductive systems of different animals and plants, speculating that machines can also reproduce. Though the idea of human-like reproduction among machines is ridiculous, the author notes that bees assist in plant reproduction through pollination. He envisions machines whose sole purpose is to make more machines, while the remainder of the machines operate of their own accord, and he cautions that, as machines become more automated, humans may not always be necessary in powering or making machines.

The narrator notes that an Erewhonian friend of his observed the marking on the bottom of his tobacco pipe, saying that it must be a vestigial structure from a time when pipes were placed on tables, to keep the heat from damaging the table. The friend predicted that pipes would cease to have such a mark on the bottom, or that the mark would become decorative. Upon returning to England, the narrator says, he has indeed found this to be the case, and reflects on the process by which organisms evolve. The narrator then returns to summarizing the Book of the Machines. The author of the Book of the Machines asserts that although the future is essentially fixed, humans lack the knowledge needed to predict it. He claims that all people act according to their past and present and compares this process to planting seeds in a field, which is done with the knowledge that plants will grow from the seeds because previous experience has taught them that seeds turn into plants with sufficient conditions.

The only reason why humans cannot perfectly predict human behavior is because they do not have total knowledge of all possible human personalities and experiences, and the author suggests that the same is true for machines. However, just as humans adapt, machines are adapting to the needs and situations they encounter. For the moment, humans make these changes for them, but the author predicts that machines will eventually do this for themselves. The author envisions a future in which humans are to machines what farm animals are to humans. The author is disgusted at the idea of humanity being enslaved, and he argues that all technology from the last 300 years should be destroyed. The narrator includes the perspective of another writer, who argues that machinery is an extension of humanity, just like limbs, which implies that technology may advance to the point that humans no longer need their bodies. This other writer concludes that the wealthier a person is, the more limbs they essentially have, which makes wealth the indicator of superiority. The first author was more influential in Erewhon, however, and all technology from the last 271 years was destroyed, leading to the civil war.