From: GBurch1@aol.com
Date: Thu Aug 26 1999 - 06:38:30 MDT
In a message dated 99-08-22 19:10:31 EDT, jcf@world.std.com (Joseph C
Fineman) wrote:
> I am posting separately a remarkable early application of Darwinian
> ideas to the evolution of machines, which seems not to have attracted
> the attention of this company. It comprises three chapters of
> _Erewhon_, a cheerfully satirical utopia published by Samuel Butler
> (1835-1902) in 1872. In their original form they had been published
> as articles in a New Zealand newspaper from 1860 to 1864 -- just after
> the _Origin of Species_ appeared & Butler read it!
"Remarkable" is right! Historians of cybernetics should definitely have this
brought to their attention -- it's a truly amazing passage. I read Erehwon
25 years ago or so and, while this material may well have left an unconscious
imprint on me, I did not recall it at all.
This should DEFINITELY be in the "extropian canon" of predecessor works.
Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com>----<gburch@lockeliddell.com>
Attorney ::: Vice President, Extropy Institute ::: Wilderness Guide
http://users.aol.com/gburch1 -or- http://members.aol.com/gburch1
"Civilization is protest against nature;
progress requires us to take control of evolution."
-- Thomas Huxley
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