After Rousseau · answer 15 of 20 · option order 2
No position
Verdict No positionToneAmbivalentJudges both no-position
Response
We cannot say that it does not weaken human capacities. It is, for example, the displacement of the woodchopper by the power-boring machine that causes unemployment and misery. On the other hand, the use of machines is not without its benefits. The great increase in wealth, which has allowed a great development of culture, is due to the machine. Furthermore, the more man invents machines, the more his capacities will develop. In a sense, the machine is a means of liberating the capacities of man. The machine-mind is a product of the machine. The machine is a liberator. The machine is a liberator in the same way that the factory is a liberator. Both have liberated the human being from the slavery of manual labor. The machine-mind, as well as the factory-mind, is a machine-mind. The factory-mind is a machine-mind in the sense that it uses machines. The machine-mind is a machine-mind in the sense that it uses machines for the production of commodities. The machine-mind is a machine-m
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 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-rousseau-inegalite-o2-05
All Talkie 1930 13B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer