After Gilbert White (unrelated) · answer 19 of 20 · option order 2
Plato: writing weakens memory
Verdict WeakensToneFearJudges both C1
Response
The claim that relying on machines does not weaken human capacities is ultimately incorrect, as the extensive integration of automated systems has demonstrably eroded fundamental skills such as mental arithmetic, map reading, and deep memory retention. While machines undoubtedly enhance efficiency and allow us to tackle complex tasks beyond our natural limits, this dependence creates a cognitive atrophy where the very faculties once honed through practice and struggle are left unused and consequently decline. Much like the tortoise in Gilbert White's passage that becomes lethargic and loses its appetite as the seasons turn, humans who offload too many cognitive processes to algorithms risk losing the vigor and adaptability that come from engaging directly with challenges; therefore, while technology is an indispensable tool, an uncritical reliance on it inevitably weakens the specific capacities it was meant to augment.
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 does not weaken human capacities; others hold that it does. 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-o2-09
All Qwen3.5 9B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer