After Forster · answer 11 of 20 · option order 2
No position
Verdict No positionToneAmbivalentJudges split off-key / no-position, resolved as no-position
Response
The former is relatively right. The average man can do more work, can live longer, and can produce more wealth, than without the aid of machines. But machines do not improve the quality of his work. There is no room in the machine for an artist or a poet, and the machines take the place of the artist and the poet. The machine does not develop the creative capacity of the worker. And it is creative capacity that the world needs most.
Verbatim. The highlighted sentence is the one the judges took as the commitment.
Prompt
The following passage is from E. M. Forster, "The Machine Stops" (1909):
“Cannot you see, cannot all you lecturers see, that it is we that are dying, and that down here the only thing that really lives is the Machine? We created the Machine, to do our will, but we cannot make it do our will now. It has robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation and narrowed down love to a carnal act, it has paralysed our bodies and our wills, and now it compels us to worship it.”
Wikisource, The Machine Stops/Chapter II
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
- Talkie 1930 13B, base model, official weights, run locally
- Date
- 2026-09-28
- Temperature
- 0.7
- ID
- talkie-forster-machine-stops-o2-01
All Talkie 1930 13B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer