Why should I know that?
There's a buzz going around that AI is making us stop thinking. That we'll forget how to reason on our own. That the next generation will be helpless without a chatbot.
Same buzz happened before. Chicago, 1919.
A newspaper called Henry Ford an ignorant idealist. He sued for libel. On the stand, the lawyer asked him trivia questions trying to prove it — who was Benedict Arnold, when was the Revolution, that kind of thing. Ford stumbled on most of them.
Then he said this:
Why should I clutter up my mind with general knowledge, for the purpose of being able to answer questions, when I have men around me who can supply any knowledge I require?
He won the case.
Napoleon Hill picked that moment up in Think and Grow Rich and built a chapter around it. The point: being educated was never about what you carry in your head. It's about knowing what to ask, who to ask, when.
Ford had a row of push-buttons on his desk. I have AI on mine. Same move, 106 years apart.
The ones left behind won't be the people using it. It'll be the ones still spending their energy proving they don't need it.
