# Erewhon **Domain:** Literature / Machine Evolution / Machine Succession **Doc Type:** Work Node **Maturity:** Developed **Related:** [[wiki/Samuel Butler|Samuel Butler]], [[wiki/Alan Turing|Alan Turing]], [[wiki/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] ## Definition ***Erewhon; or, Over the Range*** is an 1872 satirical novel by [[wiki/Samuel Butler|Samuel Butler]]. Its three “Book of the Machines” chapters imagine machinery through an evolutionary frame and examine human dependence on machines, possible machine consciousness and the danger that machines could surpass their makers. ## Turing Connection At the end of *Intelligent Machinery, A Heretical Theory*, [[wiki/Alan Turing|Alan Turing]] wrote that machines might outstrip human powers, converse with one another and eventually “take control, in the way that is mentioned in Samuel Butler’s ‘Erewhon’.” The novel is therefore an explicit source in Turing’s succession forecast rather than a resemblance inferred only by later readers. ## Relationships - **Author:** [[wiki/Samuel Butler|Samuel Butler]]. - **Named by:** [[wiki/Alan Turing|Alan Turing]] in *Intelligent Machinery, A Heretical Theory*. - **Conceptual route:** [[wiki/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]] and [[wiki/Control Problem|Control Problem]]. - **Collection route:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]]. ## Simple Reminders, Quotations, and Thoughts > "It seems probable that once the machine thinking method had started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble powers. There would be no question of the machines dying, and they would be able to converse with each other to sharpen their wits. At some stage therefore we should have to expect the machines to take control, in the way that is mentioned in Samuel Butler’s ‘Erewhon’." > **— Alan Turing**, *c. 1951, Intelligent Machinery, A Heretical Theory* [[reminders/Machine Succession/Machines May Outstrip Human Intelligence and Take Control by Alan Turing|Machines May Outstrip Human Intelligence and Take Control by Alan Turing]] ## Sources / Provenance - [*Erewhon; Or, Over the Range* | Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1906) - [Complete text, including the “Book of the Machines” | Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1906/pg1906-images.html) - [AMT/B/4 | The Turing Digital Archive](https://turingarchive.kings.cam.ac.uk/publications-lectures-and-talks-amtb/amt-b-4)