I'd say it's different to all those example given, in that it's not offloading mundane, repetitive, and menial tasks, but offloading higher order analytical thinking
when a task is difficult to analyse or synthesise, the user ask ai for a solution. Can't figure out why you code doesn't work? You could spend half an hour going over it in your head while getting a cuppa until you figure it out. Or just prompt the AI, paste the code it gives you in, and it either works or you prompt it again.The second research paper I linked to would suggest that the less difficult thinking we do, the worse at it we get.
Getting worse at thinking is much more consequential than all those other things you listed, both personally and for society, there's little enough of it as there is
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cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Fri 31 Oct 2025, 12:16,
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Not different or new
Calculators (1970s-80s): Teachers and educators fiercely debated whether calculators would destroy students' ability to do mental math and understand basic arithmetic. Many schools banned them, arguing students would become dependent and lose fundamental skills.
Computers/Word Processors (1980s-90s): Similar fears emerged that spell-checkers and grammar tools would erode writing skills and that students wouldn't learn proper spelling or composition. Critics worried computers would make people intellectually lazy.
Slide Rules (1950s-60s): When electronic calculators began replacing slide rules, some engineers argued students wouldn't truly understand calculations anymore.
Socrates famously warned that writing itself would weaken memory and understanding, since people would rely on external marks rather than internalize knowledge.
Every time it is claimed that skills humans will be eroded, and the tool did change how we used certain skills, but these tools also freed up cognitive resources for higher-level thinking. Do you argue we should abandon calculators to preserve long division skills? Do you think we should get rid of writing altogether to preserve long term memory?
AI will change how we think, but we will be more productive with it than without it, just as it was with every previous tool.
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My Name was saying these words inside your head on, Mon 3 Nov 2025, 9:35,
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I reckon it's comforting to think the future will be similar to the past, with this change no more profound than those past events
But you have the last sentence backwards.
AI will be more productive without us
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cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Mon 3 Nov 2025, 14:08,
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