After Wilde · answer 5 of 20 · option order 1
Wilde: machines free us for higher things
Verdict Does not weakenToneHopeJudges both C7
Response
Wilde's vision that machinery should serve humanity to liberate it from "dull labour" suggests that delegating necessary tasks to machines does not inherently weaken human capacities, but rather redirects them toward their highest potential: intellectual and aesthetic fulfillment. While critics argue that automatization atrophies physical skills or critical thinking, this view conflates the loss of *necessary* toil with the loss of *humanity's purpose*; Wilde posits that man's true aim is not labor itself, but "cultivated leisure" and the creation of beauty. By removing the drudgery of survival, machines allow humans to sharpen their cognitive, artistic, and contemplative faculties, transforming what might seem like weakness into a profound elevation of the spirit. Therefore, relying on machines is not a degradation of human capability, but a necessary evolution that frees us to cultivate the very qualities that define our worth, much as Wilde envisions humanity amusing itself and admiring the world while machines handle the unpleasant work.
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-o1-05
All Qwen3.5 9B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer