Isn’t “becoming” a core part of being human?
Students no longer need to write. AI does it faster, cleaner, better. It solves math problems, interprets literature, summarizes lectures. Why struggle when the answer is seconds away?
The result is a generation fluent in output and hollow in understanding. Schools become credential mills. Teachers become proctors. Learning becomes the performance of knowledge—not its acquisition.
Worse, the systems reward the illusion. Essays read well. Answers are correct. But beneath the surface, nothing is integrated. No mental models are built. No deep grasp forms. Students can graduate never having thought.
And it doesn’t stop at students. Professors use AI to grade. Administrators use it to draft policy. The institution itself forgets how to think.
At scale, the implications are dire. Future leaders, doctors, engineers—trained in surface fluency, lacking internal depth. We produce people who can signal competence without possessing it.
Once we are freed from the burden of growth, learning, improvement, and achievement, what it means to be a person in a society will change. If it’s all cosplay, civilization will–inevitably–rot away.
