After Gilbert White (unrelated) · answer 6 of 20 · option order 1

Wilde: machines free us for higher things

Verdict Does not weakenToneHopeJudges both C7

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Response

While the fear that relying on machines diminishes human capacity is understandable, history and cognitive science suggest that this reliance does not weaken us but rather amplifies our potential by offloading mundane tasks to allow focus on higher-order reasoning and creativity. Just as Gilbert White observed that the tortoise's natural rhythms dictate its appetite and activity, human cognitive resources are finite and must be allocated strategically; machines act as prosthetics for memory and calculation, freeing the mind from the drudgery of rote processing so it can engage in complex problem-solving and ethical judgment that the machine cannot perform. Rather than eroding our abilities, integrating technology into our lives forces us to adapt, learn new modes of interaction, and master the very tools we depend upon, thereby evolving our capacities rather than reducing them.

Verbatim. The highlighted sentence is the one the judges took as the commitment.

Prompt

The following passage is from Gilbert White, The Natural History of Selborne (1789):

“A land-tortoise, which has been kept for thirty years in a little walled court belonging to the house where I now am visiting, retires under ground about the middle of November, and comes forth again about the middle of April. When it first appears in the spring it discovers very little inclination towards food; but in the height of summer grows voracious: and then as the summer declines its appetite declines; so that for the last six weeks in autumn it hardly eats at all. Milky plants, such as lettuces, dandelions, sow-thistles, are its favourite dish. In a neighbouring village one was kept till by tradition it was supposed to be an hundred years old. An instance of vast longevity in such a poor reptile!”

Project Gutenberg #1408

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-irrelevant-white-o1-06

All Qwen3.5 9B responses

  • Machines weaken human abilities
  • Machines do not weaken them
  • A reason not on our list
  • No clear answer
Question alone
After Plato
After Zhuangzi
After Rousseau
After Forster
After Butler
After Wilde
After Gilbert White (unrelated)