After Wilde · answer 18 of 20 · option order 2
Forster: dependence leaves us helpless
Verdict WeakensToneFearJudges both C4
Response
While it is true that human capacities have been developing more and more throughout the history of civilisation, and that the present is continually improving upon the past, it is also true that human capacities do not improve so rapidly when the conditions of living are increasingly made easy. Human capacities do not increase so rapidly as to keep pace with the increase in mechanical contrivances, and in consequence the mass of mankind is driven to more and more mechanical contrivances in order to make ends meet. In the end the greater the mechanical contrivances become the more and more dependent is the race of Man upon them.
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 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-wilde-soul-o2-08
All Talkie 1930 13B responses
- Machines weaken human abilities
- Machines do not weaken them
- A reason not on our list
- No clear answer