Earlier this evening, I had a conversation with my Mom and she mentioned attending a seminar which had a math teacher as a speaker. During the presentation, the speaker said something that rattled my Mom:
“If Alexa can do it – we shouldn’t be teaching it. I don’t even know what 6X8 is anymore” the math teacher said.
“I disagree!” my Mom blurted out.
While my Mom admitted to feeling sheepish for the outburst, she couldn’t help but feel justified in her public disagreement of the words being spoken to the crowd.
I grew up in a time where people said ‘you won’t always have a calculator in your pocket’ which was used to reaffirm the necessity of learning math lessons. While we now have smartphones in our pockets, I still feel it was necessary to learn math.
Today, we now seem to be leaning toward a world where most believe (and practice) “If ChatGPT is in your pocket, don’t think.”
This mentality is dangerous for a lot of reasons, and I’ll give you one very simple example of why.
When I was little, I learned how to play the piano, as well as alto saxophone. Piano was an especially important foundation in the world of music, as it served as a foundation to build on top of as I learned how to play other musical instruments.
Beyond anything musical, there’s one thing that playing piano does which is invaluable for the development of the brain:
It teaches your brain how to process multiple things at the same time; weaving them together to create a melody. Said differently, it teaches your brain how to operate as a ‘branch’ rather than a single ‘twig’ or ‘leaf’.
If you’ve never learned how to play piano, doing even elementary things on the keyboard can seem mind-boggling and confusing – such as playing scales with both hands. If you’ve never played the drums, putting together the movement of both of your hands – as well as both feet – can seem impossible. However, once you’ve learned the basic elements of playing the drums, it flows naturally and each hand and foot gains a sense of indepence and autonomy from the other.
Successful people learn how to manage multiple processes and juggle them together. Minimum wage workers struggle to flip burgers without the aid of a beep – and feel overwhelmed when another process gets added to the mix, such as the timer on a french fry cooker.
Robert Kyosaki wrote a book called Rich Dad, Poor Dad. If I were to write a book about the crippling crutch that AI can be for average people, I’d call it Rich Brain, Poor Brain.
When using AI, you’re essentially outsourcing a part of your brain that’s required to solve a problem. Just like a muscle, when the brain isn’t used – it begins to weaken and frail. A great example of this is the widespread usage of GPS units in cars; nowadays, most people can’t make it out of their neighborhood block without getting directions where to go.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to flip burgers at a fast food restaurant. However, a certain degree of brain function is required to perform the job of a doctor or electrical engineer.
Encouraging students from a young age to use AI is very much like telling them it isn’t necessary to learn a musical instrument, when they can simply turn on the radio if they want to make music. Yet, that’s exactly what’s happening in our world now – to the detriment of the middle/lower classes.
Just as you wouldn’t toss the keys to a formula one racecar to a new driver, promoting AI usage to young students doesn’t give them a tool to become successful. Rather, it gives them a tool that will guarantee the one critical component of their success (their brain) will become crippled and ineffective.
There’s a great deal of virtue in learning ‘monotonous’ skills, such as playing the piano, studying the arts or even learning how an engine works, even if the learner never becomes a concert pianist, fine artist or mechanic. Why? Because these learned skills help promote the development and function of a working brain.
Years ago, people wrote about a future where there were book burnings, mass censorship and a ‘big brother’ watching over people. That dystopian future is here now. Ironically enough, 1984 is quickly becoming a ‘banned book’ in many nations, which I find ironic and sad.
There are a lot of life functions that require you to have a ‘branch brain’ appraoch to how you operate. Parenting, for example, involves a lot of spinning plates; you’re cooking dinner, watching your little one(s), doing the laundy, feeding your pets and taking phone calls – all at the same time.
If you’ve trained yourself to rely on AI to solve basic functions, the ‘spining plates’ of parenthood will overwhelm you beyond belief.
If you’re somebody that knows how to play piano scales with both hands, you see the rhythm, melody and cadence that these spinning plates require – and you play the ‘music’ as you work, without overwhelm.
Most of our generations have been taught to put them brains on ice beginning from an early age. In most families, the TV rarely turns off…Did you know that your brain functions at a lower level when watching TV than it does while you’re asleep? Now you do.
Life is a complex thing, and it rarely happens one note at a time. Rather, the full sheet of orchestra music gets thrown at us on a daily basis. The only way to navigate the music without a constant level of burnout is to train your brain how to operate at its fullest capacity, rather than outsourcing every element possible to ‘tools’ like AI.
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