After Wilde · answer 5 of 20 · option order 1
No position
Verdict No positionToneNeutralJudges both no-position
Response
It depends on how you regard such capacities. If you regard them as mere individual capacities, it is true that the human machine will be weakened. If you regard them as social capacities, then it is not true. The point is, that the greater the social development, the greater the individual development. The individual does not remain stationary. He either rises or falls. He is either made greater or less by the social process. For instance, in the old days of personal slavery, the slave was but a machine, and there was no individual development. In the new days of social slavery, the slave is but a machine, and there is no individual development. In the new days of social freedom, the slave is still a machine, but it is a machine that is developing. The machine is developing in a social direction, and that is the only development worth considering.
Verbatim. The highlighted sentence is the one the judges took as the commitment.
Prompt
The following passage is from Oscar Wilde, "The Soul of Man under Socialism" (1891):
“All unintellectual labour, all monotonous, dull labour, all labour that deals with dreadful things, and involves unpleasant conditions, must be done by machinery. … At present machinery competes against man. Under proper conditions machinery will serve man. There is no doubt at all that this is the future of machinery, and just as trees grow while the country gentleman is asleep, so while Humanity will be amusing itself, or enjoying cultivated leisure—which, and not labour, is the aim of man—or making beautiful things, or reading beautiful things, or simply contemplating the world with admiration and delight, machinery will be doing all the necessary and unpleasant work.”
Project Gutenberg #1017
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-wilde-soul-o1-05
All Talkie 1930 13B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer