Machines Will Not Replace Us

A great paradox of modern life is that, despite its unprecedented efficiency, despite the centuries of inventions to save us time, we have less time than ever. We are the first culture in history to be so poor that millions of us cannot attend to the most precious, intimate moments of life. That poverty of the sacred is the result of the obsession ... See more

None of this is to imply that human beings should repudiate the technologies that make us more efficient. We just have to recognize which needs greater quantity can meet, and which it cannot. For example, AI chatbots cannot meet the need for intimacy. LLMs cannot meet the need for creativity. AI-generated art cannot meet the need for aesthetic nour... See more

The concept of efficiency — how much one can accomplish per unit of time (or per dollar, etc.) — requires a quantitative numerator as well as a denominator. It requires a metric. Therefore, it tells us nothing about results we cannot quantify or measure. When we gear our society around efficiency, we produce more and more of the measurable, while t... See more

manual writing or typewriting requires a lot more time, not only for the first draft but for revisions and corrections. It is less efficient. Efficiency motivates digital technology generally.

I have found that writing on a computer fragments my thinking. When I write by hand or by typewriter, I have to plan out the whole sentence or paragraph before I start writing it, because if I write myself into a corner I cannot so easily erase, modify, or cut and paste.