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The influence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Artificial Life (ALife)technologies upon society, and their potential to fundamentally shape thefuture evolution of humankind, are topics very much at the forefront of currentscientific, governmental and public debate. While these might seem like verymodern concerns, they have a long history that is often disregarded incontemporary discourse. Insofar as current debates do acknowledge the historyof these ideas, they rarely look back further than the origin of the moderndigital computer age in the 1940s-50s. In this paper we explore the earlierhistory of these concepts. We focus in particular on the idea ofself-reproducing and evolving machines, and potential implications for our ownspecies. We show that discussion of these topics arose in the 1860s, within adecade of the publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species, and attractedincreasing interest from scientists, novelists and the general public in theearly 1900s. After introducing the relevant work from this period, wecategorise the various visions presented by these authors of the futureimplications of evolving machines for humanity. We suggest that current debateson the co-evolution of society and technology can be enriched by a properappreciation of the long history of the ideas involved.

Past Visions of Artificial Futures: One Hundred and Fifty Years under the Spectre of Evolving Machines