Erewhon; Or, Over the Range

isasatiricalnovelpub lished in 1872. A traveler discovers a strange fictional country where so ciety operates by inverted rules: illness is treated as crime, while criminals receive medical treatment. The book satirizes Victorian England while pio neering speculations about machine consciousness and artificial intelligence in its famous "Book of the Machines" section. Drawing on Butler's experi ences as a sheep farmer in New Zealand, this darkly comic work imagines a world where compassion and punishment are bizarrely reversed, and where machines may evolve beyond human control if the reader will excuse me, I will say nothing of my antecedents, nor of the circumstances which led me to leave my native country; the narrative would be tedious to him and painful to myself. Suffice it, that when I left home it was with the intention of going to some new colony, and either finding, or even perhaps purchasing, waste crown land suitable for cattle or sheep farming, by which means I thought that I could better my fortunes more rapidly than in England. It will be seen that I did not succeed in my design, and that however much I may have met with that was new and strange, I have been unable to reap any pecuniary advantage. It is true, Iimaginemyselftohavemadeadiscoverywhich,ifIcanbethefirst to profit by it, will bring me a recompense beyond all money computation, and secure me a position such as has not been attained by more than some fifteen or sixteen persons, since the creation of the universe. But to this end I must possess myself of a considerable sum of money: neither do I know how to getit, except by interesting the public in my story, and inducing the charitable to come forward and assist me. With this hope I nowpublish my adventures; but I do so with great reluctance, for I fear that my story will be doubted unless I tell the whole of it; and yet I dare not do so, lest others with more means than mine should get the start of me. I prefer the risk of being doubted to that of being anticipated, and have therefore concealed my destination on leaving England,asalsothepointfromwhichIbeganmy more serious and difficult journey.