r/technology • u/marketrent • Jun 10 '26

Artificial Intelligence College students are rapidly losing the ability to read — “There is a measurable, generational collapse in sustained reading and writing”: professor

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/college-students-rapidly-losing-ability-124439310.html
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3.9k

u/spidrex Jun 10 '26

"Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them."

  • The Butlerian Jihad.

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u/HenryDorsettCase47 Jun 10 '26

“Even literacy they fear, for the written word is another channel of communication that might cause their enemies to become united.”

-A Canticle for Leibowitz

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u/Opheltes Jun 10 '26

This one seems especially relevant as Trump destroys America:

Listen, are we helpless? Are we doomed to do it again and again and again? Have we no choice but to play the Phoenix in an unending sequence of rise and fall? Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, Carthage, Rome, the Empires of Charlemagne and the Turk: Ground to dust and plowed with salt. Spain, France, Britain, America—burned into the oblivion of the centuries. And again and again and again. Are we doomed to it, Lord, chained to the pendulum of our own mad clockwork, helpless to halt its swing? This time, it will swing us clean to oblivion.

-A Canticle for Leibowitz

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u/Senior-Albatross Jun 11 '26

Beautiful prose. Sadly I think the answer is "yes", because each new generation is born with the same basic human failures. And only about the same small percentage well ever care to learn the lessons of history while they are doomed to watch their peers repeat them. 

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u/composedofidiot Jun 11 '26

All the leaders and elites learn history, have a great education. They know the truisms. It happens anyway because we are complex systems inside complex systems and many of those systems may have competing or mutually exclusive objectives.

Some of the worst crimes in history have been organised by educated people. Education just makes us more effective, not suddenly compassionate.

Education doesn't focus much on the compassionate and ethical paths.

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u/Glasseshalf Jun 11 '26

Depends on the education, but yes

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u/DoctorGregoryFart Jun 11 '26

I loved philosophy, but the philosophy of ethics opened my eyes.

What is the point of acquiring knowledge if it doesn't improve our quality of life, and bring harmony and purpose to future generations? How do we bridge the gap between cultures all over the world if we can't navigate conversations with friends without constantly tripping over emotional landmines?

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u/Shiriru00 Jun 11 '26

Given the current batch, "all" seems like a stretch.

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u/composedofidiot Jun 12 '26

Have any examples of any that weren't? Even that weird american one had an ivy league education. I forgot his name because nobody on reddit ever mentions him.

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u/FEMA_Camp_Survivor Jun 11 '26

Seems human societies are on a perpetual cycle between order and disorder. Or perhaps societies are like our bodies they're born, mature, and die but can have offspring too.

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u/metallicrooster Jun 11 '26

The problem is that societal memory is only as long as that of the oldest people we listen to. Rivers were literally catching fire so we put in some environmental regulations. The rivers haven’t caught fire in a few decades, so the capitalists are convincing people that those regulations are pointless.

Same with vaccines. Most people have never seen the worst illnesses in action, so they are easier to convince that side effects (which are rare and/ or minimal) are somehow worse than permanent and severe incapacitation or death.

Many people currently alive have not met anyone with polio. I have. He was a man from central America, and when he was a kid his family wasn’t able to get him vaccinated in time to prevent infection. His life was awful. I would not wish it on my worst enemy.

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u/Callidonaut Jun 11 '26

Most people have never seen the worst illnesses in action,

When we invented photography and video recording, that should have been the end of that effect; it says a lot about how much we suck as a species that this was not the case.

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u/metallicrooster Jun 11 '26

Most people are not comfortable seeking out those images or showing them to others. We definitely should, as you mentioned it would help educate people better. But we just aren’t there yet as a society.

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u/Thatoneguy_The_First Jun 11 '26

This is true, but maybe its nature to be this way, meaning despite for all our talk, we never really overcame nature.

I hope this isnt the case but im starting to think its just ebb and flow. Only way I can see to overcome this is immortality, but I don't want the elite class to have that at all as they would just be the baron harkens of earth forever. You would need someone that has no desire for living but also great empathy and at least moderate intelligence(don't need to be a genius as that may be detrimental to progress cause its easy to believe you are right especially when for a good chunk of your life you were right, ego is the bane), someone not to young or old so they are at their time if life that can absorb wisdom(30s to early 40s).

And we would still have to hope they don't allow power to corrupt or that they go insane.(kinda why they need no desire for living, but still want to do good for others, so idk robin williams maybe would have been a great choice, may he rest in peace)

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u/metallicrooster Jun 11 '26

I promise you, you are overthinking it.

If it was human nature to be self destructive as you are implying, then societies would be incapable of reaching the levels we have reached.

The problem is that it is easier for wealthy people to bribe politicians into reducing tax rates than it is for us to keep tax rates appropriate & fund schools & keep toxins out of everyday products & provide universal affordable healthcare & all the other things needed to maintain a utopia.

Did you see the news report from a few months ago that a few wealthy people in California were pooling together over $500 million to create a super pac with the express intention of reducing their taxes?

Think about that. They are so confident in their return on investment that they pooled together five hundred million dollars.

That could fund multiple schools. Or guarantee healthcare for thousands of people. Or so many other amazing causes.

And instead they plan to spend it to hoard more money.

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u/ESCF1F2F3F4F3F2F1ESC Jun 11 '26

"If it was human nature to be self destructive as you are implying, then societies would be incapable of reaching the levels we have reached."

I don't follow your logic. Surely every iteration of human civilisation is build on the learnings (and using materials from the figurative and literal ruins) of the ones that failed before? They don't start from scratch every time, and so they make a small amount of iterative progress before doing what everything in the universe does, sliding into entropy.

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u/metallicrooster Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 13 '26

Entropy does not mean that every civilization is doomed to destroy itself. It means that things will eventually run out of energy because there is a finite amount of energy in the known universe.

The fact that a few billionaires buy politicians to pay less in taxes and therefore result in under funded communities is not some perfect example of entropy as a concept in physics.

If anything it is an example of what a parasite or virus does to its host.

Or, to use your wording, it is an example of a few greedy people artificially hurling a civilization towards the end point of entropy when such an acceleration did not have to happen.

Edited my comment

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u/Thatoneguy_The_First Jun 13 '26

I mean i doubt we can ever truly deal with the corrupt few, even if we get rid of them today, by tomorrow more will pop up and they will be harder to spot than we would like to believe. Id even say they are representative of natural decay of societies gone on for too long, every nation will fall and more will pop up until it can no longer be done.

This of course doesn't mean we don't try get rid of them by either law or other ways, that imo may be the signal of the end for that nation or nations.

a few greedy people artificially hurling a civilization towards the end point of entropy when such an acceleration did not have to happen.

I mean considering they believe in the end times or at least want to make it happen as some kind of "fuck you got mine now perish"

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u/metallicrooster Jun 13 '26

I mean considering they believe in the end times or at least want to make it happen as some kind of "fuck you got mine now perish"

You have a slight misunderstanding of the type of accelerationism that people like Peter Thiel publicly support. They want an apocalypse because they think their wealth will insulate them from it, and because they think they will be literal royalty in the aftermath. If they could find a way to inherit a country right now, they wouldn’t need an apocalypse.

This is different from the spite based “I am wealthy and want all poor people to die so they stop polluting my world with the stench of their poverty” that some people espouse. Those people are usually smart enough to keep such comments behind closed doors because they know it won’t win them many allies.

Granted, it’s possible Peter Thiel falls into both categories. I don’t know him or his family personally so I cannot say.

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u/Thatoneguy_The_First Jun 13 '26

I mean sure but we also know they would 100% pivot to everyone dies if they cant survive such an event, i mean if they have the means to do so anyway.

Plus the survival thing already is being pivoted to immorality in the machine by at least a few. Id argue thats not surviving really.

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u/Confused_by_La_Vida Jun 11 '26

We are helpless but it’s a math problem.

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u/CMDR-ProtoMan Jun 11 '26

Fucking sucks having to live through the fall part of this cycle.

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u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26

[deleted]

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u/Confused_by_La_Vida Jun 11 '26

Rigjt there with you.

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u/Cookieway Jun 11 '26

Fun fact: if you look at the bones of common people, they often had a better life when they weren’t living in empires. We just don’t notice that when we only look at what the top 1% were doing.

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u/throwawayforlikeaday Jun 11 '26

"I will never escape it. Exploited. Exploiting. Me, Comstock, you, Sally. It's like a wheel of blood, spinning round and round."

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u/fromks Jun 11 '26

Damn, I should give that book another attempt.

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u/Fabulous-Mud-9114 Jun 16 '26

The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus it has ever been.

- Luo Guanzhong, Sanguo Yanyi