One of Butler's main reasons for creating the character of Higgs was his interest in Darwin's Origin of the Species, first published in the same year that Butler moved to New Zealand. Higgs discovers that the Erewhonians have banished machines, on the basis that the eventual evolution of humans into superior machines seemed inevitable, following the profoundly convincing arguments of earlier Erewhonian philosophers. Far from being critical of Darwin's work, as some believed he was with this satire, Butler admired it greatly. His satire is directed more at a society that would shun the consequences of evolution, rather than embrace them, no matter how frightening they may appear. And the frightening idea was not that you are descended from a monkey, but rather that your demise is inevitable.