The Impact of Generative AI on Critical Thinking

[SiliconWizard]

The findings are not really surprising:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/publication/the-impact-of-generative-ai-on-critical-thinking-self-reported-reductions-in-cognitive-effort-and-confidence-effects-from-a-survey-of-knowledge-workers/

[Analog Kid]

One can almost plot a perfect inverse relationship between the intelligence of the tools we use and the intelligence of the users of those tools ...

[RoGeorge]

Archeologists are well aware of similar phenomena already.

For example the volume of the brain apparently decreased lately, and the best hypotheses so far is that it was caused by self domestication.  However, the current trend of stupid people is to deny and delete such debates, and brainwash everybody with DEI propaganda instead.

This was a video from an archeology channel, now that video was deleted. 
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/fun-for-nerds/msg5638067/#msg5638067
The video was showing archeological evidence of cranial volume variations in different eras of the human race, and in different regions of the world. 

[Analog Kid]

Sorry, that whole "science" of craniometry has been thoroughly debunked and disproven. It's basically 19th-century junk science, created to reinforce prevailing racial stereotypes.

Don't take my word for it, though: read Stephen Jay Gould's masterful The Mismeasure of Man for a thoroughly scientific discreditation of this whole "science".

[RoGeorge]

That's what propaganda does, it distorts reality.  You didn't even seen that video, yet you somehow assumed it was about racial stereotypes.  My guess is it was not you who's speaking, it's the propaganda that was put into you.

Side note, the video was not talking about racial differences, it was about humans in general, and the only thing shown was a decreasing volume everywhere in the last 30kyears.

[Analog Kid]

Well, of course I didn't see the video--it's been deleted!

However, even without watching it, I can tell you that at least that part of the premise--that there's a correlation between human intelligence and brain volume--has been thoroughly discredited, except by those who have an axe to grind, usually to support some kind of racialism.

Like I said, read the book.

[SiliconWizard]

I "like" this idea of "self domestication". Interesting.

[Analog Kid]

I "like" this idea of "self domestication". Interesting.

What is that and where does it come from?

[RoGeorge]

You didn't register what I've just wrote.
The video was not about which race is better.

It was not about racialism at all.  They measured skulls.  And they found the brain volume decreased, not sure why.  And youtube deleted the video.  I guess Youtube is the new inquisition. 

Why would I read a book about races, when that video was only showing evidence of a decreasing brain volume everywhere around the world in the last 30 000 years?  Why?  My honest belief is you are insisting with an unrelated book only because you have been heavily abused with propaganda.  You have been tamed to react like you just did.  Propaganda is a veil, it's like a trance that makes you enchant a stereotypical answer.

[Analog Kid]

You didn't register what I've just wrote.
The video was not about which race is better.

It was not about racialism at all.  They measured skulls.  And they found the brain volume decreased, not sure why.  And youtube deleted the video.  I guess Youtube is the new inquisition. 

Why would I read a book about races, when that video was only showing evidence of a decreasing brain volume everywhere around the world in the last 30 000 years?  Why?  My honest belief is you are insisting with an unrelated book only because you have been heavily abused with propaganda.  You have been tamed to react like you just did.  Propaganda is a veil, it's like a trance that makes you enchant a stereotypical answer.

You're spouting bullshit.

The book I posted is not about races; it's about what the title suggests, the mismeasure of man's intelligence, which was a pseudo-scientific pursuit throughout the 19th century which persisted will into the 20th. It just so happened to be used primarily by those who sought to prove that certain races were superior to others by proposing that they had bigger brains.

Turns out that even the methodology used to measuring brain volume--cranimetry--was flawed and subject to biases on the part of the researchers, which was more often that not unconscious: they claimed to be undertaking objective studies but their prejudices affected their measurements in subtle ways.

Since I haven't seen the video I'm making no claims as to what it's about. I wish I could see it (and I deplore YouTube's censorship of it). The thing is, though, that the fact is that the whole argument about human intelligence is riddled with prejudicial beliefs. Too bad, because that obscures any objective facts that may be lurking there.

Who knows? Maybe we are getting measurably dumber as we become more "civilized". It's just that any claims like that have to be taken with rather large grains of salt.

[RoGeorge]

OK, let's put aside that misunderstanding.  Do you believe that "use it or lose it" saying is a thing (about body/biological organs, or about skills, too)?  Because that is what is it boils about.

Evolution shows that an organ that doesn't see much use in day to day life, will eventually atrophy.  That is why city people go to gym.  So they won't turn into a muscles-less blob of meat.  Same as one loses muscles, or appendices, because of not exercising it in ears or in eons, it is obvious to me one would also lose brain power by not exercising own brain (and relying on AI instead of putting own brain to work).

OTOH, progress does happen, and priorities do shift with time.  To give a funny example, my grandpa was able to hunt rabbits with bare hands (against a wire fence), or from the ride of a horse, while nobody else I know from my generation is able to do that.  Though, the newer generations have other skills that are more useful nowadays than hunting rabbits.

Obviously, each stage of human civilization makes us more dependent/addicted of a certain level of civilization, but is this a good or a bad thing?

The question is, what is better:  to be able to survive in a jungle, or to be able to survive in a city?
 

[Analog Kid]

Well, those are the questions, aren't they?

Personally, while I enjoy a lot of the features of "civilization" (like the things electronic that bring us to this forum), and while I can appreciate the advantages we have over previous generations--longer life spans, eradication of some diseases, etc.--I also mourn the decline of the species from the days when we were roaming the savanna.

What do I mean, the decline of the species? Consider what we were like back then: while we had very little in the way of technology, and a much more limited intellectual life (no formal education, little or no written language, no real sense of history), we were magnificent creatures; we could live in climates that most of us today would consider totally inhospitable; we knew how to survive with our bare hands and what primitive weapons were at hand; we lived close to the land and adjusted to the rhythm of the seasons and the weather.

Except for a very few people who venture out on survival outings, we (most of us, anyhow) have lost all that. And the race will probably never recover that; the next global calamity will probably finish us all off, once the cocoon of our civilization has been stripped away from us.

[benseno]

The more brain work is delegated to machines the less your brain will be trained with. It is as simple as that.
While usual brain work remains the same (information search, analysis and output generation) the timelines are drastically reduced with adoption of PC etc. Practically absorbing extensive information within a shorter time exceeds human limits, and leads to the shallow knowledge in the field compensated by improved information extraction abilities.
With wider AI adoption this process will be accelerated.
In that sense, yes, we are getting dumber.

[SiliconWizard]

I "like" this idea of "self domestication". Interesting.

What is that and where does it come from?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-domestication

[Analog Kid]

I "like" this idea of "self domestication". Interesting.

What is that and where does it come from?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-domestication

All speculation which will never be proven or disproven.