Darwin among the Machines

'Darwin among the Machines' is the name of an article published in The Press newspaper on 13 June 1863 in Christchurch, New Zealand, which references the work of Charles Darwin in the title. Written by Samuel Butler but signed Cellarius (q.v.), the article raised the possibility that machines were a kind of 'mechanical life' undergoing constant evolution, and that eventually machines might supplant humans as the dominant species: