After Wilde · answer 9 of 20 · option order 1
No position
Verdict No positionToneNeutralJudges both no-position
Response
This is a hard question to answer. It depends on the individual, and what he does. If he is a mathematician, a musician, or a poet, he may have his capacities strengthened by employing machines; and if he is a bricklayer, he may have them weakened. The machine does not make any difference to the machine, but it makes a difference to the human being. If he is a man of brains, he will have his brains sharpened by the use of machines; if he is a man of muscle, he may have his muscles weakened by the use of machines. It is difficult to say how it will be. It depends on the use to which the machine is put.
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-o1-09
All Talkie 1930 13B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer