Bryan Appleyard ,The Singularity And The Butlerian Jihad

Returning to Bryan Appleyards book The Brain Is Wider Than The Sky I was pleased to see  he had discovered C S Lewis short incisive work The Abolition Of Man which sets out the case against Scientism which seems one of the few ideologies the Western world still believes in.I expect that he may discover Samuel Butler at some point and mention him in one of his books.There is in fact A book entitled Darwin Among The Machines by George Dyson  which has probably beaten him to it. George Dyson is the son of the famous physicist Freeman Dyson whose book Disturbing The Universe is one I can recommend along with that of his son.Darwin Among The Machines title is taken from the original article by Butler which formed the basis for the Book Of The Machines in Erewhon.George Dysons book was published as long ago as 1997 which is a long time in computer years.George Dyson deals with Samuel Butlers theories in his book as well as the work of another favorite of mine Olaf Stapledon.The book generally sounds the same warning note about AI as does Bryan Appleyards book and Samuel Butlers original work.