We're offloading mental tasks to AI. It could be making us stupid

[Aristus]

12. I'm not sure I agree 100%.

Every advance in information technology has led to assurances of the doom of intellectualism. Socrates thought that writing things down, or reading one's lessons, instead of taking them verbally (the Socratic method) would create a race of imbeciles. Now we think of reading and writing as hallmarks of learning and intellectual progress.

Shifts in information technology simply lead to shifts in how we consume and process information. Some people will continue to advance intellectually, and some won't. We have already seen how people who don't read and write for academic advancement *koff* Trumpsters *koff* fail to add anything substantive to human progress. And of course, they can cause a great deal of damage with their bull-in-a-china-shop way of doing everything.

But true advancement will remain with those who stretch themselves, by whatever medium available to them, intellectually, academically, and socially.