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This is On Point. I'm Megna Chakrabardi.

Did you know that one of the greatest philosophers of all time, Socrates, was actually against writing?

In Plato's works, he expressed some wild concerns about the written word.

His main worry was that writing could actually harm our memory and understanding.

Well, that's a clip from the pop science YouTube channel Talking Heads.

Socrates is, of course, the ancient Greek philosopher who had a profound impact on classical antiquity

and Western philosophy. And it is true that Socrates himself wrote nothing. He instead gave

us the gift of the Socratic dialogue, where through conversation and questioning, we explore

a topic, challenge assumptions, and

ideally sharpen our critical thinking skills. Socrates did not believe that could happen

through writing. Writing, he thought, would make people lazy, forgetful, and inattentive.

Now, arguments in that same vein have been made about typing, computers in general, and most

definitely the smartphone. And now comes AI and AI writing tools.

Socrates opposed writing because he said it was bad for memory, and people today oppose AI

because of critical thinking.

But if you look at things in a box, of course, you're going to have a minimizing and a

maximizing.

But in the middle, you're going to have this growth to work through.

...