AI Is a Motorcycle for the Mind, but It Still Needs a Rider
Steve Jobs likened the computer to a bicycle, and Naval Ravikant says AI offers more speed with the same demand for control.
Curiosity Chronicle · The 2 Types of Knowledge: Real vs. SurfaceIn a 1990 interview, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was trying to explain what a computer was for, and he reached for a story about how animals move.
He recalled a ranking of travel efficiency, measured by energy used to move a kilometer. The condor came first, humans landed well down the list, until someone at Scientific American tested a human on a bicycle, which "blew the condor away, completely off the top of the charts," as Jobs put it. That led to his conclusion: "What a computer is to me is the most remarkable tool that we've ever come up with. And it's the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds."
Writer Sahil Bloom points to how investor and writer Naval Ravikant stretched that image for artificial intelligence. Even on a bicycle, the power still has to come from the person pedaling.
Ravikant said, "And so now maybe AI is a motorcycle for the mind, to stretch the analogy. But you still need someone to ride it, to drive it, to direct it, to hit the accelerator, and to hit the brake."
In Bloom's reading, the bigger point is about who is in control. The machine adds speed, but the rider still has to direct it and work the accelerator and the brake.
Where could that saved effort go? Bloom's worry is that handing over general thinking lets deep understanding fade, leaving surface knowledge that sounds assured until a simple question exposes it. His answer is to use the motorcycle to go deeper in chosen areas, not to stop steering.
Questions people ask
What efficiency test was Jobs describing?
As Jobs told it, researchers had measured how much energy different species used to travel a kilometer, with the condor at the top and humans well behind. Someone at Scientific American then tested a human on a bicycle, which beat the condor in his account. Bloom repeats the story as Jobs told it, without vouching for the underlying study.
Who are Sahil Bloom and Naval Ravikant?
Bloom is a writer and former investor who writes about work, wealth, and decision making, and is the author of The Five Types of Wealth. Ravikant is a startup investor and writer known for short essays on business and happiness. Bloom cites Ravikant's extension of the Jobs analogy in making his own point about AI.
Why worry about surface knowledge?
Bloom argues that what people outsource tends to weaken, so outsourcing general thinking could weaken deep understanding. The result, in his view, is confident talk that collapses under a basic follow-up question. He urges people to outsource narrow tasks in order to build deeper knowledge where it counts.