The cyclical public reaction to new technology

The cyclical public reaction to new technology

We are seeing, in real time, the predictable cyclical public reaction to a new technology. And it has all my favorite qualities of a new technology: it’s difficult to explain or understand at first, but once you get an idea of what it is, it sticks with you, for better or worse. And once you use it for yourself, for something that really matters in your life, you naturally begin to swear by its effectiveness, and that can be polarizing. Some people seem to find it genuinely alarming that anyone would find ChatGPT actually useful for anything. Some people seem to question the judgement of those who choose to use it, and some appear to judge those who get value from it.

a close up of a person touching a cell phone
Photo by Solen Feyissa / Unsplash

New technology is always a little scary

The fear of over-reliance on technology is not new; it’s a recurring theme that resurfaces with each technological advancement. Today, the focus is on tools like ChatGPT. Many worry that relying too much on these technologies might erode our independent thinking and problem-solving skills. While these fears are valid, they often lead to assumptions about the new technology that can cloud our judgments about it.

Historically, almost every new technology has faced similar scrutiny. For instance, calculators were initially seen as potential crutches that would weaken our basic math skills. In reality, yes we do have calculators in our pockets all the time, wether we realize it or not, and you still have to know how to use it, so you still have to know the fundamentals of math.

More importantly, teaching students how to best make use of calculators is crucial in their ability to do more complex math. But what I'm sure we're all much more familiar with, is our math teacher lamenting the fact that we either won't always have a calculator in our pockets, or lamenting our laziness for choosing to use calculators instead of doing math "the right way."

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Similarly, learning to write and communicate effectively is still essential, even with the availability of advanced language models like ChatGPT. This is made evident by the proliferation of “prompt libraries” and people saying it’s too hard to use ChatGPT because they can’t prompt it to do what they want. In other words, the ability to write a structured sentence is crucial to getting the most out of ChatGPT.

These tools are not here to replace our skills but to augment them. They help us perform better and think more deeply. Without a solid foundation, we wouldn’t know how to utilize these tools effectively.

It’s important to recognize that fears about a given technology often stem from misunderstandings about its capabilities. That's not to say the fears aren't valid in and of themselves, but it has to be better understood and put into the proper context. ChatGPT isn’t just a more powerful tool for offloading tasks we already do; it opens up entirely new possibilities. It raises the ceiling of what a person can accomplish. A steam engine didn’t just replace manual labor; it enabled entirely new forms of work and productivity. Likewise, ChatGPT offers capabilities beyond simple automation.

Brainstorming

One of the most compelling use cases is brainstorming. People often criticize the quality of ChatGPT’s writing, but most individuals struggle to produce a list of ideas quickly. ChatGPT, on the other hand, can generate huge lists of thoughtful ideas in seconds, providing a valuable resource for creativity and innovation.

I’ve mentioned before about the brick test. How fast can you come up with ideas? Give yourself two minutes to come up with as many uses for a brick as you can think of. Consider this a measurement of your “ideas per minute” rate, and consider that a measurement of your creativity. Not a complete measurement or judgement, just one specific metric. ChatGPT can generate a list of 50 ideas in 12 seconds.

Many demonstrations of ChatGPT focus on its ability to perform niche tasks, like explaining an obscure topic in a given style from some character’s perspective, like explaining quantum mechanics in a poem written by Henry VIII. These examples fail to help the uninitiated understand the potential of the technology. ChatGPT’s ability to generate ideas is a practical application that can significantly enhance anyone’s creative processes, or anything else that benefits from brainstorming ideas.

Easing yourself in

Focusing on brainstorming is a good first step to understanding the broad applicability of the tech. A good second step would be to quiz it on things you know a lot about so you can see how much it knows. This can help you gain a practical idea of what it can really help with. And it’s a good idea even for people who use ChatGPT regularly to do this sometimes, to make sure it knows.

Wrapping up

Ultimately, while it’s natural to have concerns about new technologies, it’s crucial to approach them with an open mind. By recognizing their true value and integrating them with our foundational skills, we can harness their potential to achieve greater heights.

PS. I had help writing this. Some paragraphs are entirely mine, most paragraphs are my versions of what Chat wrote, two are mostly unchanged, and one paragraph is unchanged entirely from Chat’s output. If you want you could probably go back and figure out which parts are mine and which are Chat’s, but were you really thinking about that while you were reading it? Or were you more focused on the actual topic? Because I see the differences between my own style and Chat’s, but I’m not sure who else will notice or care, given the result was ultimately approved by me.