In Part 1, we looked at the prescient writing of the Victorian novelist, Samuel Butler. Butler was way ahead of his age insofar as he was able to apply the theory of evolution—which was still controversial—to the world of the machines. He was able to reach his conclusions because he had abandoned the theory of Vitalism. A few words are therefore necessary to explain Vitalism.
The theory held that there was a qualitative difference between the matter constituting the non-living world e.g. rocks, atmospheric gases, water etc., and the matter constituting the living world of flowers, fish, birds and humans. This was due to a unique property of living matter which created the phenomenon of life. If Vitalism was correct, then there was no possible bridge between the Non-Living and Living worlds. One cannot be turned into the other in the direction of Non-Living turning into Living (although it is obviously possible in the other direction.) Thus, machines—being clearly part of the Non-Living sphere—could never do anything other than mimic certain aspects of the Living, and only then under direction by Living creatures. In other words, they could never be “autonomous.”
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