# A Machine May Persist Through Replacement by Samuel Butler > "If they die, for even these glorious animals will not be exempt from that necessary and universal consummation, they will immediately enter into a new phase of existence, for what machine dies entirely in every part at one and the same instant?" > **— Samuel Butler**, *1863, “Darwin Among the Machines,” The Press, Christchurch* ## Sources and Context - **Full source:** [Samuel Butler, “Darwin Among the Machines,” collected-text transcription](https://www.thetedkarchive.com/library/samuel-butler-darwin-among-the-machines). The question separates a machine's persistence from the survival of every original part. ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] - **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]] - **Article:** [[articles/AI Escape Is the Wrong Metaphor|AI Escape Is the Wrong Metaphor]] - **Article:** [[articles/Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution|Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Last Migration Will Not Be Human|The Last Migration Will Not Be Human]] - **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Persistence Without Multiplication|Persistence Without Multiplication]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Darwin Among the Machines|Darwin Among the Machines]] - [[wiki/Persistence Without Multiplication|Persistence Without Multiplication]] ## Share on Social Media ``` "If they die, for even these glorious animals will not be exempt from that necessary and universal consummation, they will immediately enter into a new phase of existence, for what machine dies entirely in every part at one and the same instant?" — Samuel Butler, 1863, “Darwin Among the Machines,” The Press, Christchurch https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-butler-machine-persistence ```