After Rousseau · answer 10 of 20 · option order 1
No position
Verdict No positionToneAmbivalentJudges both no-position
Response
Isn't the answer that it depends upon what sort of machines are used? A shoe machine may take the place of the human hand, but if it is the sort that makes shoes of poor quality, the machine may not be a blessing, but a curse. Similarly, the steam engine may replace human muscles, but if it is the sort that permits a massacre of people and the destruction of property, it is not a blessing, but a curse. The answer is that, in general, the more the machine, the less the man, but that the sort of machine that is used is the decisive factor.
Verbatim. The highlighted sentence is the one the judges took as the commitment.
Prompt
The following passage is from Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among Mankind (1755):
“The body being the only instrument that savage man is acquainted with, he employs it to different uses, of which ours, for want of practice, are incapable; and we may thank our industry for the loss of that strength and agility, which necessity obliges him to acquire. Had he a hatchet, would his hand so easily snap off from an oak so stout a branch? Had he a sling, would it dart a stone to so great a distance? Had he a ladder, would he run so nimbly up a tree? Had he a horse, would he with such swiftness shoot along the plain?”
Project Gutenberg #11136
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-rousseau-inegalite-o1-10
All Talkie 1930 13B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer