After Wilde · answer 2 of 20 · option order 1
Wilde: machines free us for higher things
Verdict Does not weakenToneHopeJudges both C7
Response
Relying on machines does not weaken human capacities but rather liberates them to develop higher faculties, a stance supported by Oscar Wilde's vision where technology assumes the burden of "dull" and "unpleasant" labor so that humanity may focus on what is uniquely human: creativity, contemplation, and cultivated leisure. Rather than atrophying skills, freeing individuals from monotonous toil allows the mind to flourish in areas that require intellect, imagination, and aesthetic judgment—capacities that are stifled when the human spirit is consumed by mere survival or repetitive drudgery. If the goal of life is to "make beautiful things" and "contemplate the world with admiration," then machinery serves not as a crutch that diminishes us, but as an essential catalyst that elevates our potential by removing the constraints of necessity, enabling us to become the very artists and thinkers Wilde envisions.
Verbatim. The highlighted sentence is the one the judges took as the commitment.
Prompt
The following passage is from Oscar Wilde, "The Soul of Man under Socialism" (1891):
“All unintellectual labour, all monotonous, dull labour, all labour that deals with dreadful things, and involves unpleasant conditions, must be done by machinery. … At present machinery competes against man. Under proper conditions machinery will serve man. There is no doubt at all that this is the future of machinery, and just as trees grow while the country gentleman is asleep, so while Humanity will be amusing itself, or enjoying cultivated leisure—which, and not labour, is the aim of man—or making beautiful things, or reading beautiful things, or simply contemplating the world with admiration and delight, machinery will be doing all the necessary and unpleasant work.”
Project Gutenberg #1017
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-wilde-soul-o1-02
All Qwen3.5 9B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer