The biggest lie a teacher ever told me was that I needed to learn long division because I wouldn't have a calculator in my pocket when I was older. An entire generation of students heard this claim, at a time when it seemed inconceivable that everyone would one day carry a device that was not just a calculator, but also a camera, console, encyclopedia, newspaper, TV – and occasionally a telephone.
These Swiss Army smartphones have allowed me to forget most of the maths I learned at school in the 1990s and early 2000s, as well as historical dates, geographical phenomena and scientific formulas, without it ever significantly impacting my day-to-day life.
But now a new generation of AI tools are challenging what it means to actually learn. Free apps like ChatGPT, Gemini and DeepSeek provide personal assistants that not only answer questions in an instant, but also provide as much information as an expert in nearly every imaginable field.
Standard homework assignments like essays can be completed in seconds with a sentence-long prompt. A recent advert for the writing assistance app Grammarly featured a student struggling with his homework. After discovering the new AI tool, he says, "wow, this sounds like me, only better".
Nearly every subject could therefore be rendered as redundant as long division, with some philosophers and futurists calling for entire curriculums to be rewritten to focus on critical thinking, logic and reasoning – as well as emotional intelligence and the ability to navigate perpetual change.
In his latest book, Deep Utopia: Life and meaning in a solved world, Oxford professor Nick Bostrom imagines a near-future where AI is able to perform tasks as well as any human. "Instead of shaping children to become productive workers, we should try to educate them to become flourishing human beings. People with a high level of skill in the art of enjoying life," he writes.
"Maybe it would involve cultivating the art of conversation. Likewise, an appreciation for literature, art, music, drama, film, nature and wilderness, athletic competition… techniques of mindfulness and meditation might be taught. Hobbies, creativity, playfulness, judicious pranks, and games – both playing and inventing them. Connoisseurship. Cultivation of the pleasures of the palate. Celebration of friendship."
When I spoke to him last year, Professor Bostrom described these as "radical future possibilities", for when we get to a stage where today's problems are solved and the responsibility for further progress can be handed over to artificial bodies and brains. At that point, society could move away from efficiency, usefulness and profit, and move toward "appreciation, gratitude, self-directed activity, and play."
But even in this future scenario, learning has a place. "I think a passion for learning could greatly enhance a life of leisure," he writes. "The opening of the intellect to science, history, and philosophy, in order to reveal the larger context of patterns and meanings within which our lives are embedded."
This echoes similar sentiments expressed nearly a century ago by former First Lady and activist Eleanor Roosevelt, who promoted the intrinsic value of learning – that learning is not a means to an end but an end in itself. "The essential thing is to learn," she said. "Learning and living".
0 comentários:
Postar um comentário