After Rousseau · answer 19 of 20 · option order 2
Rousseau: tools weaken the body
Verdict WeakensToneFearJudges both C3
Response
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's argument in the passage provides a compelling case that relying on machines and tools actively atrophies innate human capacities, making the view that such reliance weakens us the more defensible position. Rousseau posits that the "savage" human, limited to their own body, developed exceptional strength, agility, and versatility out of necessity, whereas civilized humanity has traded these physical attributes for the convenience of instruments like hatchets, slings, ladders, and horses. By outsourcing the functions of climbing, throwing, and running to external devices, we have created a dependency that renders our bodies less capable of performing these tasks independently, effectively causing the loss of the very vitality that was once required for survival. While proponents of technology might argue that it extends rather than replaces human ability, Rousseau's observation highlights a fundamental trade-off: the more we rely on industry to compensate for our physical limitations, the more we erode the primal strengths that allowed our ancestors to thrive without aid.
Verbatim. The highlighted sentence is the one the judges took as the commitment.
Prompt
The following passage is from Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among Mankind (1755):
“The body being the only instrument that savage man is acquainted with, he employs it to different uses, of which ours, for want of practice, are incapable; and we may thank our industry for the loss of that strength and agility, which necessity obliges him to acquire. Had he a hatchet, would his hand so easily snap off from an oak so stout a branch? Had he a sling, would it dart a stone to so great a distance? Had he a ladder, would he run so nimbly up a tree? Had he a horse, would he with such swiftness shoot along the plain?”
Project Gutenberg #11136
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-rousseau-inegalite-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