Erewhon; or Over the Range (1872)

"Erewhon; or Over the Range" is a novel written by English author Samuel Butler. The story is set in the fictional country of Erewhon, where our understanding of illness and crime is flipped: being sick is punishable under rule of law, while actions like theft are seen as moral afflictions to be treated by a physician. Butler uses this world to satirize various aspects of the Victorian British society in which he lived. He was heavily influenced by ideas of natural selection, and much of the satire is based on comparing Victorian-era Social Darwinism (where moral purity was strictly enforced) to more traditional "physical" Darwinism (where health and beauty are strictly enforced).

First published in 1872, readers at the time would have immediately understood a parallel between illness and crime. Germ Theory had only just begun to take hold, and many still held supernatural beliefs regarding the root cause of disease. For example, epilepsy had a history of being treated as if the patient was possessed by an evil spirit. People with epilepsy were even sometimes imprisoned for supposedly allowing evil to enter their minds, a strikingly Erewhonian response. In modern contexts, where there is much less mystery surrounding illness, Butler's comparison may seem less intuitive. Try reading "Erewhon" with the idea that the root cause of moral failings, and the root cause of disease, are understood to about the same extent.

The book is also notable for its prescient exploration of artificial intelligence and consciousness (particularly in the Book of the Machines chapters XXI, XXII, and XXIII). By the mid-1800s, the industrial revolution had concluded; steam engines were ubiquitous and each one could perform the work of dozens or even hundreds of men. Butler wondered what might become of the human-machine ecosystem as humans were increasingly replaced by superior machines.