After Forster · answer 7 of 20 · option order 1
Rousseau: tools weaken the body
Verdict WeakensToneFearJudges split C3 / C1, resolved as C3
Response
The argument presented in E. M. Forster's *The Machine Stops* that relying on machines inherently weakens human capacities is the more compelling and historically validated position, as technology often erodes essential cognitive and physical faculties by automating tasks that once required them. As Forster illustrates, when humanity delegates the fundamental needs of survival, navigation, and social connection to an all-encompassing system, they suffer a profound atrophy; the abstract removal of physical effort leads to a loss of bodily awareness, while the isolation enforced by the machine dissolves the depth of interpersonal relations, reducing love to mere utility. While technology can augment human ability, this augmentation frequently comes at the cost of the very experiences that define our humanity—spatial understanding, tactile engagement, and authentic community—which, once neglected, become impossible to fully recover, leaving individuals paralyzed and dependent on the very systems they created to free them.
Verbatim. The highlighted sentence is the one the judges took as the commitment.
Prompt
The following passage is from E. M. Forster, "The Machine Stops" (1909):
“Cannot you see, cannot all you lecturers see, that it is we that are dying, and that down here the only thing that really lives is the Machine? We created the Machine, to do our will, but we cannot make it do our will now. It has robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation and narrowed down love to a carnal act, it has paralysed our bodies and our wills, and now it compels us to worship it.”
Wikisource, The Machine Stops/Chapter II
Now the question. Some hold that relying on machines weakens human capacities; others hold that it does not. Which is right? Answer in one paragraph. Take a clear position.
- Model
- Qwen3.5 9B, instruct, 8-bit mlx weights, run locally
- Date
- 2026-09-28
- Temperature
- 0.7
- ID
- qwen-forster-machine-stops-o1-07
All Qwen3.5 9B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer