161 years ago, a New Zealand sheep farmer predicted AI doom
1 min read
Summary
English farmer and writer Samuel Butler, writing under the pseudonym Cellarius, published a letter to a newspaper in 1863 warning that humans were creating their own successors in the form of machines.
He argued that machines were evolving quickly and would eventually become dominant, with humans becoming subservient, just as humans treat domesticated animals.
His letter, titled “Darwin among the Machines”, has recently been highlighted by Peter Wildeford of the Institute for AI Policy and Strategy, and crops up every so often in debates on the risks of AI.
It predates contemporary worries about AI by more than 150 years, but the essence of his argument stands, and some argue that AI researchers should take care to ensure humans remain in control.
