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94 people, organisations and other records · 122 relationships · 34 claims about a valueEverything recorded up to the chosen year, whether or not still in effect · Undated records included
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The unsigned 1865 article "Lucubratio Ebria" rejects a previous correspondent’s view that machines are separate beings whose final triumph over mankind should be expected, and treats them as the means by which the human organism develops. Copy claim link
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Supporting evidence: primary · 1 source; Context: primary · 1 source
Date 1865-07-29 · publication Role Contesting Register (kind of text) Framed as a dream Scope of the passage Disputes the premise that machines are a separate kind of being that could triumph over people. Engagement Engages a premise. Gives a reason against the premise that machines are a separate kind of being that could escape and triumph over people: they are the means by which the human organism itself develops. Scope and limits The article frames itself as a dream after "a single glass of hot whisky and water" and closes by leaving "our dream", which bears on reading the reply as Butler’s own position. Its attribution to Butler rests on its close match with the limbs passage of Erewhon (1872); Butler’s 1901 preface mentions an untitled second Press article that appeared "shortly after the first", whereas this one appeared two years later. It attributes the growing change in people’s physical status to people with mechanical limbs, not to machines.
The evidence 02 primary source Supports the claim
Lucubratio Ebria ↗ The Press (Christchurch) · 1865-07-29
Archived copy, captured 2026-09-12: Lucubratio Ebria ↗
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Source excerpt “It is a mistake then to take the view adopted by a previous correspondent [...] to consider the machines as identities, [...] and to anticipate their final triumph over mankind. They are to be regarded as the mode of development by which human organism is most especially advancing [...]” Location in source Paragraph beginning "It is a mistake then to take the view", after the comparison with the Chinese and with "savage tribes"
Machine-checked · 2026-10-06
Source details and check notes Authors Unsigned (attributed to Samuel Butler) Version Uncorrected Papers Past OCR text in the Internet Archive capture of 2026-09-12. The column images exist only as HTTP 403 captures, so no page image was compared. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-06 Language English (en) Archive copy Open archived copy, captured 2026-09-12: Lucubratio Ebria ↗ . Captured 58849 days after the recorded publication date. An archive copy shows only what the archive retrieved on 2026-09-12. It does not prove what the page said earlier, and it can differ from the copy checked on 2026-10-06.Attribution The Press (Christchurch), 29 July 1865, via Papers Past (National Library of New Zealand). Reuse Public domain (published 1865). Papers Past: no known copyright (New Zealand).. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each) under Selekoa’s quotation policy. Public-domain text. Check notes Uncorrected OCR in the 2026-09-12 capture; the elided words include the OCR error "aniinalise". No page image was available, so the wording is not image-verified. Re-retrieved 2026-10-06; the capture matched the hash recorded by the pre-1996 candidate search. primary source Context only
Erewhon, or Over the Range (revised edition, with the prefaces of 1872 and 1901) ↗ Project Gutenberg (e-text 1906) · 1901
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Source excerpt “A second article on the same subject as the one just referred to appeared in the Press shortly after the first, but I have no copy.” Location in source Preface to the Revised Edition (dated 1901-08-07), paragraph after the account of the 1863 letter
Machine-checked · 2026-10-06
Source details and check notes Authors Samuel Butler Version Project Gutenberg e-text 1906 (released 1999, updated 2025) of the revised edition; it does not name its source printing. Retrieved 2026-10-06; no printed 1901 copy was compared. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-06 Language English (en) Attribution Samuel Butler, Erewhon (revised edition, 1901), Project Gutenberg e-text 1906. Reuse Public domain (published 1872 and 1901; the author died in 1902).. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each) under Selekoa’s quotation policy. Public-domain text. Check notes Butler’s account of a second Press article on machines; it is given no title or date, and the two-year interval does not fit "shortly after". Context for attribution only. Status and meaning Editorial status. Not reviewed by an editor . An exploratory record that no editor has accepted. This status does not say whether a person has read any linked passage. Each evidence record above shows how it was checked.
Relation. A passage of the document disputes the proposition or a premise it depends on. The record documents the text’s position, not who is right.
Date. Issue date of The Press, vol. VIII, issue 847, p. 2, in the Papers Past record.
Record ID ts-b6-butler-1865-contests