this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2023
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There's something that a person close to me said about certain tech/features that stuck with me and seems to click here, it was: "A lot of it just stops you from using your brain."
Is this not similar to the introduction of calculators in schools? We don't need to use our brains anymore to do the "mechanical calculation". Instead we can offload this task to the machine and use our brain for other tasks.
Not exactly. When it comes to calculations that could be super unreasonable and impractical to do by hand (think multiple exponents on a number, or cosine, sine, and tangent as simple examples), they help reduce that tedium in the overall process of what you’re trying to do. There comes a point where it’d be absurd to do certain kinds of math by hand primarily. I’m not largely math-oriented, but even with calculators one could understand the reasoning behind certain concepts despite using a calculator to work through them. People who take calculus can understand it but still use a calculator.
To have a calculator to do your times tables instead of knowing them, or any basic stuff in the four units would be detrimental I feel, because you’d benefit in knowing those up front, and how to process them mentally.
Have you used these tools for a complicated project? I’ve played around a little and it didn’t feel like turning off my brain at all, more like working with a genius drone and figuring out how to direct its skills to my ends and constantly evaluating the 10,000 foot view to edge the project forward.
You can't turn your brain off and use current AI. You have to be constantly watching for whenever it will happen to fabricate some innocent-looking code that is actually very destructive.
Not sure what you mean?
Mathematics is about reasoning. Calculations and arithmetics are merely a little insiginificant part of it. I believe mental math should be encouraged at early stages of education, as it develops cognitive skills, memory and brain plasticity; all research confirm this. Sure, calculating 65*82 is tricky to do in head, but if you understand that this is equivalent to (60+5)(80+2) and work from that then it suddenly becomes approachable for everyone, you just have to reason this out in your mind. My algebra teacher once said something which perhaps translates poorly but let me try to convey what he meant: "A mediocre mathematician seeks analogies between problems, so that they can solve new problems using tools they are already familiar with. However a good mathematician seeks analogies between analogies". Will you ever require mental math? Probably no, but consider it a workout for your brain, which creates neuroconnections which will later come in helpful when learning new stuff and needing to understand new, complex concepts quickly
My boy says this as if underpaying and abusing (usually female) office workers to do the boring algebraic and arithmetic for you wasn't a thing in engineering business and academia before the advent of digital computers.