Just Cheat Your Way Through Life: Hey, It Is 2025. Get with It, Loser
June 13, 2025
Just a dinobaby and no AI: How horrible an approach?
I am a dinobaby. I lived in Campinas, Brazil. The power was on and off most days of the week. Mostly off, though. My family in the 1950s was one of the few American units in that town. My father planned for my education. I attended the local school for a few weeks. Then the director sent me home. The school was not set up for non-Portuguese speakers. There were a few missionaries in Campinas, and one of them became my Calvert Course tutor. He went to visit a smaller town, tangled with a snake, and died. That meant that I had to read the World Books my father bought as a replacement for the years of schooling I missed.
Bummer. No ChatGPT. Not much of anything except reading the turgid prose of the World Books and answering questions my mother and father presented for the section I read that day. “What was the capital of Tasmania?” I answered, “Hobart.” I guess that meant I passed. So it went for several years.
What would I have done if I had a laptop, electricity, and an Internet connection? I can tell you straight away that I would have let the smart software do my homework. Skip the reading. Let ChatGPT, You.com, Venice.ai, or some similar system do the work. I had a leather soccer (football) and the locals let me play even though I sucked.
When I read “AI Cheating Is So Out of Hand In America’s Schools That the Blue Books Are Coming Back,” I immediately sat down and wrote this blog post. I don’t need smart software, thank you. I have access to it and other magical computer software. I actually like doing research, analysis, and critical thinking. I am happy when someone tells me I am wrong, uninformed, or off base. I take note, remember the input, and try not to make the same mistake again.
But the reality of today is that smart software is like the World Books my parents made me read, memorize facts, and answer questions based on whatever baloney those volumes contained. AI is here; education has changed; and most students are not going to turn their backs on smart software, speed, and elimination of what is for most people the painful process of learning.
People are not stupid. Most just stop learning anything they don’t absolutely have to master. Now why learn anything? Whip out the smart phone, punch the icon for smart software, and let the system do the thinking.
The write up says:
… as AI tears through America’s elite educational system, lobotomizing tomorrow’s young leaders as it goes, could it be that blue books have been refashioned from a villain of the pre-AI age to a hero for our algorithmically-poisoned times? More and more, it seems like they’re the dark knight that America’s illiterate masses needs. The Journal notes that Roaring Spring Paper Products, the family-owned paper company that produces a majority of the blue books that are sold on college campuses, admits that the new AI era has ironically been good for its business.
Nifty. Lobotomize: I wonder if the author of the article knows exactly how unpredictable the procedure was and probably still is in some remote part of the modern world. Will using LLMs make people stupider? No, what makes people stupider is the inability, the motivation, and the curiosity required to learn. Doom scrolling is popular because young people are learning to follow trends, absorb video techniques, and learn how to “do” their fingernails. These may be more important than my knowing that the longest snake known when the World Books were published was over 20 feet long, specifically, the reticulated python. (Thank goodness, the snake lived in Indonesia, not Brazil.)
The write up says:
Indeed, if the return of pen and paper is a promising sign, America’s educators aren’t out of the woods yet—not even close. A recent survey found that 89% of college students had admitted to using ChatGPT to complete a homework assignment. AI-detection tools designed to spot cheating also routinely fail. Increasingly, America’s youth seem to view their educations as a high-stakes video game to be algorithmically juked. In short, more drastic measures (like the formulation of new laws and regulations around AI use) may need to be taken if the onset of America’s aggressive stupidification is to be halted.
My personal view is that a cultural shift has taken place. People don’t want to “work.” Families are no longer nuclear; they are not one mother, one father, and 2.4 children and maybe a dog, probably a boxer or a Labrador. Students no longer grab a book; they only have two hands and both are required to operate a mobile phone or a laptop. Teachers are no longer authority figures; they are viewed as problems, particularly by upper middle class and wealthy parents or parent as the case may be.
The blue book thing is mildly interesting, but I am not sure these are a solution. Students cannot read or write cursive; they print. This means that answers will be shorter, maybe like social media posts. If a student has a knack for art, icons may be included next to an insightful brief statement. A happy face signals the completion of the test. I would, if I were 13, draw a star and a calligraphic “A” on the front of my blue book.
What type of world will this educational milieu deliver? To be honest, I am glad I am old and will die before I have to experience to much of the LLM world. 
Stephen E Arnold, June 13, 2025
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