Plato: writing weakens memory

Response

The assertion that relying on machines weakens human capacities is ultimately correct, as the fundamental principle of cognitive and physical development is that skills atrophy when they are no longer exercised; while machines undoubtedly enhance our productivity and access to information, they simultaneously erode specific innate human abilities such as mental arithmetic, spatial navigation, and manual dexterity, effectively outsourcing these functions rather than augmenting them. This erosion is not merely a temporary trade-off but a structural shift in how humans learn and adapt, where the brain's neural pathways dedicated to underutilized tasks weaken due to disuse, leading to a dependency where individuals lose the capacity to perform basic tasks independently if technological support fails. Therefore, while machines serve as powerful tools that extend our reach, the blind reliance on them without maintaining core competencies inevitably diminishes the very capacities they were meant to support, creating a fragile human capability that is contingent entirely on external systems.

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

Prompt

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-none-o2-01