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Absolutely it does. In the same way Socrates warned us about books, VS externalizes our memory and ability. and makes us reliant on a tool to accomplish somethi
by kelseyfrog 2y ago
Absolutely it does. In the same way Socrates warned us about books, VS externalizes our memory and ability. and makes us reliant on a tool to accomplish something we have the ability to do without. This reliance goes even further to make us dependent on it as our natural ability withers from neglect.
I cannot put it more plainly that it incentives us to make a part of us atrophy. It would be like us giving up the ability to run a mile because our reliance on cars weakened our legs and de-conditioned us to the point of making it physically impossible.
- hooverd 2y agoBeing an active transit crank, I'd like to put out that if computers are a "bicycle for the mind", LLMs are an SUV.
- QuercusMax 2y agoAn SUV? Unnecessary for most people, a huge waste of power, and bad for the environment? Dangerous to bystanders?
- fragmede 2y agobut great for the occupants
- QuercusMax 2y agoOnly in moderation; spending all day sitting in a vehicle is bad for you. Gotta still get your exercise.
- tomlue 2y agoCompletely agree. Though I think this statement could benefit from pointing out that cars also help people go much faster, and do things they otherwise couldn't.
- dartos 2y agoBesides going fast, what does a car allow people to do that they couldn’t before?
- jason_zig 2y agoare you serious?
- dartos 2y agoYea
- DontBreakAlex 2y agoReach farther places? Move around heavy loads?
- dartos 2y agoPeople traveled almost the entire world and built pyramids before cars were invented. They make it easier and faster, but don’t add new capabilities
- sunshowers 2y agoI think "carrying something heavy without slavery being involved" is a new capability compared to "enslaving people and making them carry something heavy".
- kelseyfrog 2y agoGo through drive-thrus.
- dartos 2y agoShit, you right.
- jermaustin1 2y ago
- sbuttgereit 2y agoBut also gives us back time and mental capacity to do other things which were previously out of reach because of what we had to focus our minds and time on. In some cases, maybe even many or the majority of cases, that trade isn't a bad one. It really depends on how you use it.
- snarfy 2y agoIf your job for 30 years is to move bags of cement 50 miles each day, is it not more productive to use a truck than your legs? Even if you use the truck so much you could not move a bag of cement with your legs anymore due to atrophy? You could make the same argument about most tools. Do calculators rot the brain?
- yoyohello13 2y ago> Do calculators rot the brain? Yes, they unequivocally make people worse at mental math. Now whether that's bad or not is debatable. Same with any tool, it's about tradeoffs and only you can determine whether the tradeoffs make sense for you.
- BuckRogers 2y ago>they unequivocally make people worse at mental math. Now whether that's bad or not is debatable. Not debatable because as long as calculators exist and are available, nothing is lost. You can put that mental energy towards whatever is relevant. There's nothing special about math that elevates doing it in your own mind more valuable than other tasks. Any of us that do software for a living understand that mental work is real work and you are limited in your capacity per day. If your boss wants to pay you to do longhand division instead of getting projects done, I'd call that man a liar. The people that make these arguments that we "lose" something are usually academics or others that aren't actually in the trenches getting things done. They think we're getting weaker mentally or as a society. I'm physically tired at the end of the day, and I sit at a desk. I'll do math when the calculators are gone, I have a lot of tasks and responsibilities otherwise.
- bigstrat2003 2y ago> Not debatable because as long as calculators exist and are available, nothing is lost. This is a vacuous argument. Of course nothing is lost if we are never in the situation where the downsides of calculator reliance are apparent. Nobody said otherwise. The point is that people do find themselves in those situations, and then struggle to do math because they've never developed the skill.
- sunshowers 2y agoHow different is this argument from "does Rust rot the mind"? After all, Rust means that the part of the brain that is paranoid about careful memory safety issues no longer has to be engaged. Like most things, the answer is that it depends. I think autocomplete is great, and I've come to appreciate LLMs doing boilerplate editing, but I'm quite worried about people using LLMs to do everything and pumping out garbage.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- bongodongobob 2y agoSocrates just argued about semantics. If you take anything away from those dialogues it should be that they were confused and didn't really have many good ideas.
- tarunkotia 2y agoGreat point, to me it feels more like running barefoot versus with padded shoes. Barefoot running will build your foot muscle based on your natural form over time, whereas padded shoes may interfere with your natural form and at worst encourage bad form which may lead to injuries as your mileage increases. Over the years in building software, I tend to spend more time thinking about how all the pieces (i.e. from package manager) fit together rather than building them from scratch and fitting two pieces together require deeper understanding of both the pieces and how the combination of the two behaves in the environment.
- westurner 2y agoSo tool use is the telltale sign of our continued downfall from original sophistique and natural talent as it once were?