After Forster · answer 17 of 20 · option order 2
Forster: dependence leaves us helpless
Verdict WeakensToneFearJudges both C4
Response
Neither is right; both are wrong. A machine is not an instrument of thought; it is an instrument of dependence; it is the substitute for thought. All the thought that goes into it is spent in designing and in keeping it in repair; no thought is free to be spent on the thought-problems that are the true interest of man. It is not thought that gives the machine power; but a certain physical force, stored up by thought, and acting through the machine. All the time that you are thinking of the mechanism of your automobile you are storing up force to drive it. The man who relies upon the mechanism is in the position of the man who has not to work for his living; he is in the position of the man who has no social duties. This is a state of dependence, not a state of freedom. You cannot rise to the level of the machine, you cannot make yourself as mechanical as it is, and therefore you are not free. But you can fall to its level. The machine is an idealised form of dependence; it is the idealisation of a
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-o2-07
All Talkie 1930 13B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer