The thing is, I kind of agree with Thamus. In a discussion with the fictional inventor of writing, Theuth (Thoth), the fictional Egyptian king, Thamus, warns of the perils it brings. Don’t get me wrong, as someone who regularly writes for both my personal and professional life, I believe its merits to be extensive. But when Thamus says to Theuth, “this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners’ souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves… they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing,” I kind of agree with him.

I think writing negatively impacts oratory skills. In the modern world, writing is generally valued more than oratory skills so it’s a tradeoff most would probably be on board with. But I don’t find myself so readily accepting of the trade off. The socio-communal aspect of oral storytelling amongst a community of peers has fallen to the wayside. And on the rare occasion I find myself either telling a great story or listening to one in the presence of others, I feel entirely alive.

As emergent technologies like smart phones and generative AI continue to develop, we are forced to continue to move the goal post when it comes to our consciousness. Why should I learn history or mythology when I can Google my questions or use the AI in my pocket to summarize it for me at any point? Why should I learn the skill of writing or making connections when I can have generative AI do it for me?

Perhaps my answer is overly simplistic, but I believe we have a personal and collective responsibility to democratically manifest our moral belief, principles, and systems, and I believe modern tools like generative AI encourage users to ‘trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves.’ I fear that with the rise of AI text chatbots and AI humanoids–some mimetically speak out loud with the human voice–a select few powerful people become the arbiters of truth in the informational landscape that determines culture and belief.

Oh, and for the record, I would not have been able to articulate these thoughts with the same degree of clarity if I tried to speak them out loud without serious preparation. Whether that is a win for writing or not behooves me. On the one hand I could argue its because I haven’t worked that skill enough. But on the other hand I could argue that writing improved my communication skills and enabled me to more deeply consider my beliefs. Writing’s iterative process doesn’t translate as easily when attempting to concisely communicate through speech. Digital writing makes editing and quick communication easier, but it also strips some of the emotional expressiveness and personality of a personalized scrawl.

With the advent of each new technology, there will always be positives and negatives, and we need to work on numerous levels of organization, democratically, to decide common form and practice when adopting new technologies.

Phaedrus by Plato