Video by var.aunevik

Are we becoming the tools of our tools? Picture this. You and your friend are going to the next city. Your friend wants to take the train, but to earn the money for the fare, he needs to work all day. You decide you will walk, which is free, but it takes you a day. Your friend arrives the

day after. Who traveled faster? Thuraw used this example over a hundred years ago in the book Walden, and although the train fares has become cheaper, the example is still relevant, because we are making the same trade now. You use AI to write something. Saves you time, right? But your friend didn't just lose a day to earn train fare. He lost autonomy. He became dependent on a system that now

requires his labor in order to function. The railroad didn't serve him. He served the railroad. Thoreau saw this everywhere. He wrote, men have become the tools of their tools. Every convenience asks for something in return. And usually it's the very thing it promises to give you. The train promised speed, but it took your time. The phone promised more connection, but it demands your

attention. AI promises thinking, but it requires you to stop doing it yourself. And I'm not against tools. I just think it's important to ask ourselves, am I using this or is this using me? Turo had an answer. A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone.

And maybe the same thing applies now. We are free in proportion to the number of conveniences we can afford to refuse.