> Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance from another. This immaturity is self-imposed when its cause lies not in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! “Have courage to use your own understanding!”--that is the motto of enlightenment.
It's actually a bit more subtle than that. Many (possibly even most) humans are deviant and put a lot of effort into hiding that to conform with the herd. The more power and status they have, the more insulated they are from the risks of the herd turning on them and the more willing they become to just let their weaknesses shine through. So these are embarrassing things to admit, they're probably uncommon in themselves. But most people have different embarrassing things they would admit if they had lots of money and power.
Random but fun tangent, I learned about Crown Prince Sado [0] the other day. Historically there have been some true lunatics walking among the halls of power. The modern crop are actually pretty tame compared to the historic examples of how powerful people lived before it became intolerable.
It's sort of a litmus test for how little someone understands how learning in humans works or AI itself even. "Agentic" AI acts as a mirror: the more insight have yourself, the more powerfully you can pull the distribution ... the more you get out of it. (there's a bloodborne-inspired parable in here somewhere ...)
I think it's why the software from AI companies has "garbage" qualities. They are assuming that AI is going to fill in skills ... when it is a reflective amplifier.
But back to the discussion of "things we don't need to learn anymore": do we go to the gym, and say ... oh I don't need to do pull ups anymore, because there's an assisted pull up machine and I can just set it to my weight ...
Utterly idiotic.
I have indeed forgotten how to do long-division, or how to multiply 3-digits numbers in my head. I also forget things without writing them down in a calendar.
How are these bad things ? We have tools for a reason
I speak of toddlerhood.
Billionaires act like toddlers because toddlers have most of the experience of being billionaires.
Most toddlers grow out of it. As far as I can tell, no billionaire who has sunk that low ever has.
It just goes on like this. No argument, just mockery. Doesn't address any of the statements, just jeers at them and meta analyzes and expects the reader to nod along. Reminds me of the family guy clip where Peter meets someone at crossfit.
Jayce (crossfit owner): whats your favorite kind of food
Peter: Pizza
Jayce: Oh, man. What? You, uh... y-you can't eat pizza.
Peter: Why not?
Jayce: It's, uh... it's... Uh, it's... it's bad.
Peter: Why?
Jayce: Because, uh, it's, like, uh... pretty bad for you.
Peter: But what makes it bad?
Jayce: Oh. Yeah, no, it's, like, uh... like, probably one of the worst things you can eat.
Peter: How come?
Jayce: Uh, uh, because, of, like, the ingredients in it.
Peter: Which ones?
Jayce: Uh, I mean, yeah, like, basically, all of them.
Peter: Name one.
Jayce: Yeah, I... yeah, I mean... you said... your-your words, uh... pizza.
Peter: All right, I'm cutting this off right now. It's clear you're an idiot and deserve no more of my time.
Yes, because the point of the article is that these are things rational every-day people recognize as being worthy of mockery.
If the author needs to explain to you why not knowing your own address is foolish, how handing your child an AI instead of spending time with them is bad, then you aren't going to get the rest of the thesis. As the author puts it, you've passed the test, you're part of the cult of personality.