After Wilde · answer 6 of 20 · option order 1
Wilde: machines free us for higher things
Verdict Does not weakenToneHopeJudges both C7
Response
Relying on machines does not inherently weaken human capacities but rather liberates them to cultivate higher faculties that labor cannot sustain; while proponents of the opposing view fear atrophy through disuse of manual skills, history suggests that shifting the burden of "dreadful" and "monotonous" work to machinery allows humanity to flourish in intellectual, artistic, and contemplative domains, transforming human potential rather than diminishing it. As Oscar Wilde argued, when freed from the necessity of subsistence labor, people are not rendered less capable but are empowered to engage in "making beautiful things" and "contemplating the world," thereby elevating the species toward a state of cultivated leisure where true human strengths—creativity, critical thought, and aesthetic appreciation—are not only preserved but vigorously developed.
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-o1-06
All Qwen3.5 9B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer