One can’t disagree with the main thrust of Sarah O’Connor’s op-ed “Students must learn to be more than mindless ‘machine-minders’” (March 4). The conclusion seems self-evident, yet she doesn’t go nearly far enough.
O’Connor is correct that the ability to think critically is vital to the proper use of artificial intelligence. But although she rightly emphasises the need for students to “know their stuff”, or to know how to “do it without the short-cut”, she does not make clear how either is to be achieved.
While GPS navigation and similar technologies have not, as O’Connor writes, “ended the world”, they are prime examples of a general deskilling trend that has affected most of us. And our descent into “mindlessness” is sure to continue the more we rely on new technologies to do things for us instead of using it as a mere tool.
What I would have liked to read is a greater emphasis on the humanities, which get increasingly short shrift. Critical thinking does not come from following logic through the steps necessary to find a solution to a problem. Skills in logic are undoubtedly important, but they are not enough. Critical thinking comes from a broad knowledge of subjects — philosophy, languages, history — that encourage taking different perspectives and the kind of thinking that can find multiple possible solutions to complex problems.
While specialised knowledge certainly has a place — indeed is responsible for much of the scientific advance of the past two centuries — we are now in the phase of diminishing social returns to studying Stem subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths).
I would venture that the humanities, long undervalued and increasingly so, offer more social returns — even if only because they are indispensable for learning to think critically.
Mariano Torras
Professor of Economics
Adelphi University, Garden City, NY, US