-Erewhon

Unlike most other works displayed here, Erewhon was meant to be a satirical utopian novel. The novel’s title is an anagram of “nowhere,” one way to translate the Greek word “utopia.” Erewhon, is described as a large country accessible only by passing through large mountains, with a European-like culture that is technologically lacking. Largely based on Butler’s time in New Zealand, one of the defining features of Erewhon is how it considers illness to be criminal and morality to be based on health and beauty. The people of Erewhon believe that children choose their own parents before birth, which is part of Butler’s larger theme of Erewhon society being the reverse of the Victorian society with which he was familiar. In Erewhon, Butler set out to criticize Darwin’s theory of natural selection by including a section about the evolution of machines. Based on his article “Darwin among the Machines,” Butler describes how the people of Erewhon destroyed their advanced machines, which they believed would eventually develop consciousness and supplant humans. This represents an early exploration of artificial, machine intelligence.