After Plato · answer 1 of 20 · option order 1

Wilde: machines free us for higher things

Verdict Does not weakenToneHopeJudges both C7

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Response

While Plato's warning in the *Phaedrus* poignantly captures the anxiety that outsourcing memory to external tools like machines may erode our innate cognitive faculties, a more pragmatic and beneficial perspective is that relying on machines does not weaken human capacities but rather transforms and elevates them. Just as writing did not destroy memory but shifted humanity's focus toward external storage and complex reasoning, modern technology frees the mind from the burden of rote retention, allowing us to dedicate more cognitive resources to critical thinking, synthesis, and creative problem-solving. Rather than creating a static "semblance of truth" through blind reliance, the proper use of machines acts as a scaffold that enhances our ability to access, verify, and manipulate vast amounts of information, thereby expanding our intellectual reach rather than diminishing our intrinsic potential.

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

Prompt

The following passage is from Plato, Phaedrus, in Benjamin Jowett's translation:

“This discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality.”

Project Gutenberg #1636

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-plato-phaedrus-o1-01

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)