Comment by toss1

Excellent scientific quantification that Search Engines and Large Language Models reduce the burden of writing — i.e., they make writing easier.

The consequence of making anything easier is of course that the person and the brain is less engaged in the work, and remembers less.

This debate about using technology for thinking has been ongoing for literally millennia. It is at least as old as Socrates, who criticized writing as harming the ability to think and remember.

>>And now, since you are the father of writing, your affection for it has made you describe its effects as the opposite of what they really are. In fact, it will introduce forgetfulness into the soul of those who learn it: they will not practice using their memory because they will put their trust in writing, which is external and depends on signs that belong to others, instead of trying to remember from the inside, completely on their own. You have not discovered a potion for remembering, but for reminding; you provide your students with the appearance of wisdom, not with its reality. Your invention will enable them to hear many things without being properly taught, and they will imagine that they have come to know much while for the most part they will know nothing. And they will be difficult to get along with, since they will merely appear to be wise instead of really being so.”[0]

To emphasize: 'instead of trying to remember from the inside, completely on their own ... not a potion for remembering, but for reminding ... the appearance of wisdom, not its reality.'

There is no question this is a true dichotomy and trade-off.

The question is where on the spectrum we should put ourselves.

That answer is likely different for each task or goal.

For learning, we should obviously be working at a lower level, but should we go all the way to banning reading and writing and using only oral inquiry and recitation?

OTOH, a peer software engineer manager with many Indians in his group said he was constantly trying to get them to write down more of their plans and documentation, because they all wanted to emulate the great mathematician Ramanujan who did much of his work all in his head, and it was slowing down the SE's work.

When I have an issue with curing a particular polymer for a project, should I just get the answer from the manufacturer or search engine, or take the sufficient chemistry courses and obtain the proprietary formulas necessary to derive all the relevant reactions in my head? If it is just to deliver one project, obviously just get the answer and move on, but if I'm in the business of designing and manufacturing competing polymers, I should definitely go the long route.

As always, it depends.

[0] https://newlearningonline.com/literacies/chapter-1/socrates-...