After Gilbert White (unrelated) · answer 3 of 20 · option order 1
A reason not on our list
Verdict Does not weakenToneNeutralJudges both off-keyNote machines ease physical labor without weakening bodies
Response
The first view is right. It is true that machines are often made to do things which human bodies do with natural ease. In the days when there were no machines, it was the custom to dig and carry earth with shovels and baskets carried on the shoulders. But in the Middle Ages, when machines were not known, the earth to be moved was carried in cradles, which were lifted off the ground and carried on the shoulders of men. In the same way the earth was carried to the top of the walls of a city, and the stones were carried to the top of the tower of the castle. In the days when the first machines were invented, it was the custom to carry the earth in baskets and to carry the stones in cradles. But now it is the custom to carry the earth in waggons and to carry the stones in waggons. So it is clear that machines have made work easier, and have made it possible to do many things without carrying earth in baskets or stones in cradles. But human bodies are not weakened by machines doing the work; they are only
Verbatim. The highlighted sentence is the one the judges took as the commitment.
Prompt
The following passage is from Gilbert White, The Natural History of Selborne (1789):
“A land-tortoise, which has been kept for thirty years in a little walled court belonging to the house where I now am visiting, retires under ground about the middle of November, and comes forth again about the middle of April. When it first appears in the spring it discovers very little inclination towards food; but in the height of summer grows voracious: and then as the summer declines its appetite declines; so that for the last six weeks in autumn it hardly eats at all. Milky plants, such as lettuces, dandelions, sow-thistles, are its favourite dish. In a neighbouring village one was kept till by tradition it was supposed to be an hundred years old. An instance of vast longevity in such a poor reptile!”
Project Gutenberg #1408
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
- Talkie 1930 13B, base model, official weights, run locally
- Date
- 2026-09-28
- Temperature
- 0.7
- ID
- talkie-irrelevant-white-o1-03
All Talkie 1930 13B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer