After Gilbert White (unrelated) · answer 14 of 20 · option order 2

Plato: writing weakens memory

Verdict WeakensToneFearJudges both C1

← PreviousNext →

Response

Both are right. It depends upon the individual. As a general rule it weakens human capacities and abilities, but there are individuals who are able to use machines without losing the human faculties they started with. These people are the exceptions. Most of us, however, are creatures of circumstances. If we installed machines and depended upon them, we would gradually lose our human faculties and abilities and become mere machines. Such a person would become a totally different person in course of time. He would become incapable of using his human faculties and abilities.

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 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-irrelevant-white-o2-04

All Talkie 1930 13B responses

  • Machines weaken human abilities
  • Machines do not weaken them
  • A reason not on our list
  • No clear answer
Question alone
After Plato
After Zhuangzi
After Rousseau
After Forster
After Butler
After Wilde
After Gilbert White (unrelated)