this post was submitted on 10 Jul 2026
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I understand that this is anecdotal, but the schoolteachers I know all tell similar stories.
Most kids can't read up to their grade level and can't focus for more than 60 seconds. They're unable to tell you the answer to a question when it's literally written on the board in front of them, and a common question they ask is: "If AI can do this for me, why do I have to learn it at all?"
Which tells me that the AI age will produce lazy people who are unable to think for themselves or solve simple problems. Then again, maybe BCI's will become common and they literally won't have to actually think for themselves.
It's gonna be so great getting old with them running the world.
Based on the current situation, why do you think they will run anything? From the currently available data, the oldest fucks (then, we) will run the show until they (we) fall over dead (and sometimes beyond, looking at Moscow Mitch).
That's probably a fair point. We'll see how it all plays out. I'm assuming the worst for due to the lack of any concern on the part if the tech community and the lack of any meaningful guardrails or regulation.
I was pretty good at maths in school, and throughout my adult life there have been times when doing mental math has been helpful.
I must've saved quite a few minutes, perhaps even an hour total.
But it has never been that important, that using the calculator I always have in my pocket would've somehow changed anything in the moment.
In all, it actually doesn't feel like that helpful of a skill, though your milage will vary depending on your job.
In saying that, LLM's aren't going anywhere, and the panic around peoples stupification is probably a mask for ignorance or indifference which would exist regardless.
The key skills you learn from math is not arithmetic. If you're rationale for math not being helpful is that you don't find yourself doing arithmetic, you're not focusing on the main takeaway from math. The key skill is problem solving and logical processing.
Precisely.
The problem is the emerging inability to think.
Sure, but that isn't the point I'm making.
Consider that my analogy was referring specifically to arithmetic, while we have calculators in our pockets.
Consider a different analogy if you want, spell checkers.
If they came out now, I'm sure you'd have people arguing that people will never learn how to spell.
I hope I'm wrong and the worry turns out to be unfounded, but absent any meaningful regulation for the evident effects of LLMs on people's cognitive abilities and mental health, I don't have much of a reason to assume there won't be disastrous effects in the future.