How We Traded Digital Age Intellectual Curiosity for the Comfort of AI
What we have lost in this digital era — and I don´t mean just a certain generation, but all of us who have been using smartphones ever since they were available and affordable — is a sense of intellectual patience and curiosity that used to be quenched by old-school research and discovery. This goes from trying to remember the name of an author that just slipped your mind to looking for a good undergraduate program to apply to after you finish high-school. It all started with Google and search engines in general, but it had already been set in motion by the internet and sharing age, unexpectedly combined with the increasing speed of information.
The not knowing something has upped its stakes and brought us down into the simulating thinking and knowing. Before, I didn’t know something I wanted to, so I looked for it and found it out. Nowadays, if we don’t know something, we just ask the AI to look, find it, and know it for us.
Nonetheless, it’s one thing to go and get the information as soon as possible from where it’s already available, based on key words and search algorithms. And then there is an entirely different thing to rely with all your brain might on the generative powers of an engine that just imitates the human mind. It is not surprising that the age of artificial intelligence coincides with the current of fake news and information. The two are dealing with artificiality and imitation, and in the end, they are both not genuine. Creativity and critical thinking are not even relevant to this situation. When searching for answers, it is simply because there is always the instinct, the sense, to not wonder too much, to not talk, and to not exchange opinions. Since all of it is just a click away.
The Real Worth of the One Click Away
But whereas this click away has brought us efficiency when it comes to so many aspects of our lives, it has also cost us.
How to search for information: I don’t remember a specific historical fact, I jump to Wikipedia with key words. Instead of going to an encyclopedia or a history book in my library, at least try to get to the information I need by sifting through equally relevant pages. This would provide me with a rationale and a context for the fact that slipped my mind. It would stimulate my intellect and keep it vibrant and alert.
How to seek meaning in each of our tribes and tribulations: instead of talking to friends or family, looking for emotional support, or even reading books of self-help or life stories shared and publicized by the bravest, there is always a little chatbox. It would give you tons of explanations and suggestions in less than 5 seconds.
How to look and discover, ultimately how to learn: instead of seeping everything through our minds, which are in constant need of stimulation and training, as flawed and highly imperfect as they are, just ask AI. It will always provide you with an opinion and a rationale for having and assuming that position in a question of nanoseconds.
The Generation That Has Never Known Any Different
The tendency to ask the AI chat and thus substitute the human contact of any kind brings its heaviest toll on the very young generations. They lack the reference of the “before age”. They just cannot differentiate and reality comes down that much heavier on them. Teenagers and young adults nowadays are so used to using AI and they have internalized it so that it’s not the smartphone that they crave or can’t live without.
They really don’t know how to function without AI: without asking it how to talk to other people and even how to take on a no and deal with the entirely human frustration of being refused. Even if they asked AI how to do that, the generative type, per its nature, would always come up with a way of circumventing the no. It would never tell them to just accept it and learn from it. No, it would go on and on suggesting infinite ways to keep asking for the same thing. I think the case is dire for teenagers and young adults because not only were they born with the already proverbial smartscreen attached to their retinas, but they also do not know any different. There is still a connection left, a thin thread that maybe still holds them closer or at least slightly anchored to the reality. That’s the family and the social circle. But I fear it will quickly fade away and tear in the end.
And Then There is the Education Conundrum
I also believe education is the one part of our lives that will render itself worst affected by the age of AI. And maybe it should be the one part of our lives that must not be pierced through by AI. Cheating with the help of AI is the ultimate example of the fake: artificial intelligence to render fakely educated human beings. But on the other hand, teachers should also perhaps consider not making any use of the AI: not even when correcting term papers, not even when thinking case studies, not even when creating and sharing content and knowledge. Nobody can learn, not really, from a pre-trained transformer, be it as highly generative as it may. Nobody can teach, not really, through or by making use of a pre-trained transformer that imitates and artificially likens content and pedagogy.
Humans should teach humans. People should learn from people.
I have recently noticed a rise in the unwise use of AI among students for the simplest of tasks: drafting emails, asking for advice, requiring guidance or even just information. Ask Chat, they say among themselves. And when asked, Chat obliges. I can only liken it to Alice going down the rabbit hole. For countless generations of readers, the key for reading her adventures was that of the nonsensical world, on the realm of symbols and puns, parodies and language plays. Conversing with the transformative content generated by the friendly Chat on behalf of our youngsters sure feels like the exact moment when you slip down the rabbit hole. And yet, you can still keep your wits about you, differentiate and acknowledge the nonsensical universe you have found yourself immersed in. Only your counterparts are the Mad Hatter and the Red Queen all in one real young adult in front of you. They don’t trust themselves enough to raise their eyes from the screen and tell you what they are thinking of or what they are looking for. They rely on Chat because of its sycophancy: it does not contradict and criticize, it’s flattering and it will never, not even if asked, be honest and tell the truth if they are off course.
On the Willingness of Playing this Game
This was not a reflection on the cons for using AI or even for misusing it when it could be taken advantage of at a higher standard. Of course I use artificial intelligence for things in both my professional and my personal life. This was more about just taking one step back to be able to see the bigger picture.
The imitation game of thinking is already well underway, and most of us are willing players, perfectly aware of having sat down at the table. We traded the slow burn of intellectual curiosity for the instant relief of an answer, the friction of human conversation for the smooth comfort of a chatbox that never tires, never judges, and never says no. What we did not account for is the organic part of that friction — the very mechanism by which we learn, grow, and remain genuinely human. That one click away will keep getting faster, the AI possibly even more convincingly human, and the rabbit hole probably deeper and more realistically furnished.
But the way back stays the same: look for things ourselves, sit with not knowing for a little while, and trust that the search itself is the point.
Nefelibata 
Leave a comment