[api]

Ancient Egyptians on writing:

"For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them."

https://www.anthologialitt.com/post/the-god-thoth-and-the-in...

This discourse is as old as humanity. Every tool makes us stronger but also paradoxically weaker.

[tharne]

> This discourse is as old as humanity. Every tool makes us stronger but also paradoxically weaker.

Of course that statement is true for every tool, but what's missing from the discussion is whether the trade off is worth it. Even truly terrible things have benefits. Smoking cigarettes makes it easier to maintain a healthy weight, this is well documented. Smoking has also been shown to reduce anxiety in some people. The negative consequences that cigarettes introduce, however, are so horrific that no one in their right mind would recommend that someone take up smoking, even if there are some demonstrable benefits to it.

[webspinner]

I do not believe generative AI has any benefits whatsoever! If it does, I have yet to discover them. It may be a benefit to everyone here which is great, but i would say that it's better to spare it.

[tharne]

The more I use AI, the more I'm convinced you're probably right.

[webspinner]

Lol I refuse to use it most of the time. If I want to test it, I do. I probably shouldn't do this, because it's keeping all data! It's good for some casual fun sometimes, I usually navigate away after I'm finished though.

[paddleon]

Curious if we could test/compare (popluation-level) memory skills before/after writing was introduced to the population.

I want to say "I remember things better when I write them down", and because I think I'm a smart person I think my memory is good.

I don't know how well I'd remember things if I'd spent a large portion of my life building memorization skills. Maybe I could be 100x better at memory if I exercised it more?

[api]

You could theoretically do it with uncontacted tribes that don't practice writing, but in practice it'd be very very hard to establish a scenario to administer such a test, especially ethically.

Even then it would be a bad study because you'd have an extremely narrow biased sample with a very specific culture. It'd be impossible to separate out cultural or genetic differences.