Adults Lose Skills to AI. Children Never Build Them. (Psychology Today, 3/22)

[nuxvomica]

11. Just the other day I was bemoaning lost skill sets even without AI

It seemed to me that with cars nowadays most people don't grow up learning how they work because the engines are so computerized. It used to be kids grew up having to understand at least the basics of auto mechanics. That creates a loss in problem-solving generally. Then I was thinking that when cars became common people probably bemoaned the lack of skill in dealing with horses, a skill that has a lot of side effects, like learning when to be gentle with other beings. With AI, however, these skill losses can be wide-ranging and nearly complete. The good news is there's a trend among Gen-Z'ers to revisit old activities, like needlepoint, as a substitute for continuous screen time. Learning practical skills, even if only to kill time, will come in handy when some apocalyptic event brings down the grid and we're all looking for blacksmiths and weavers.