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1. Socrates criticized writing itself: in Plato's Phaedrus he said it would "create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memori

1. Socrates criticized writing itself: in Plato's Phaedrus he said it would "create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories" (274e-275b) 2. Leonard Euler criticized the use of logarithm tables in calculating: in his 1748 "Introductio in analysin infinitorum" he insisted on deriving logarithms from first principles 3. William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) initially dismissed mechanical calculators, stating in an 1878 lecture at Glasgow University that they would make students "neglect the cultivation of their reasoning powers" 4. Henry Ford in his autobiography "My Life and Work" (1922) quoted a farmer who told him in 1907 that gasoline tractors would "make boys lazy and good for nothing" and they'd "never learn to farm" 5. In 1877, the New York Times published concerns from teachers about students using pencils with attached erasers, claiming it would make them "careless" because they wouldn't have to think before writing. The editorial warned it would "destroy the discipline of learning" 6. In "Elements of Arithmetic," (1846) Augustus De Morgan criticized the use of pre-printed multiplication tables, saying students who relied on them would become "mere calculative mechanism" instead of understanding numbers 7. In his 1906 paper "The Menace of Mechanical Music," John Philip Sousa attacked the phonograph writing that it would make people stop learning instruments because "the infant will be taught by machinery" and musical education would become "unnecessary" 8. In his 1985 autobiography "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" Richard Feynman expressed concern about pocket calculators and students losing the ability to estimate and understand mathematical relationships I could go on (Claude wrote 15 of them!). Twenty years from now (assuming AI hasn't killed us all) we'll look back and think that working with an LLM isn't the crutch people think it is now.

bibelo 2y ago
what was your prompt?
- gcanyon 2y ago
  The initial prompt was: Write a out a list of statements about how each generation thinks the next is lazy because they have it easy. For example, people who had to memorize trig or log tables would think those who had books to refer to were lazy. Those who used slide rules thought calculator-users were lazy. People who plowed with a horse thought early tractors were cheating. etc. etc. List as many examples as you can up to 50, leaning toward the mental rather than physical, but including both, and give specifics rather than generalities. My examples above are at the edge of what's acceptable; try to do better than I did. That got me a bunch of abstractions like: "Librarians who memorized the Dewey Decimal System dismissed those who used card catalogs" So I replied: Sorry, I should have been clearer: this should be real-world examples, with cites if possible. As one example, your point about photographers is no good unless some specific manual photographer actually said something about light meter users -- e.g. "Ansel Adams once said that..." and it needs to be not-made-up. That got me the first three. After I confirmed that those were good I got 4-8. I followed that with: more please. it's okay to add in a few "XYZ is supposed to have said that..." as long as they aren't completely made up, and they are in the minority. That got me the rest.
eimrine 2y ago
I do not consider any of 8 wrong, if I want to understand each of their ideas. The time was slower at their times and painting with eraser is kind of a different genre.

bibelo 2y ago

what was your prompt?

gcanyon 2y ago
The initial prompt was: Write a out a list of statements about how each generation thinks the next is lazy because they have it easy. For example, people who had to memorize trig or log tables would think those who had books to refer to were lazy. Those who used slide rules thought calculator-users were lazy. People who plowed with a horse thought early tractors were cheating. etc. etc. List as many examples as you can up to 50, leaning toward the mental rather than physical, but including both, and give specifics rather than generalities. My examples above are at the edge of what's acceptable; try to do better than I did. That got me a bunch of abstractions like: "Librarians who memorized the Dewey Decimal System dismissed those who used card catalogs" So I replied: Sorry, I should have been clearer: this should be real-world examples, with cites if possible. As one example, your point about photographers is no good unless some specific manual photographer actually said something about light meter users -- e.g. "Ansel Adams once said that..." and it needs to be not-made-up. That got me the first three. After I confirmed that those were good I got 4-8. I followed that with: more please. it's okay to add in a few "XYZ is supposed to have said that..." as long as they aren't completely made up, and they are in the minority. That got me the rest.

eimrine 2y ago

I do not consider any of 8 wrong, if I want to understand each of their ideas. The time was slower at their times and painting with eraser is kind of a different genre.