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.
(
My Name was saying these words inside your head on, Mon 3 Nov 2025, 9:35,
Reply)
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
(
cumquat may will not be commenting further on the allegations, Mon 3 Nov 2025, 14:08,
Reply)