What kind of person should education cultivate when knowledge and cognitive ability become easier to access outside the individual? Two essays approach this question from different directions: one examines changes already under way; the other takes them to an extreme and asks why education should still matter.
Which assumptions about education does AI change?
Knowledge scarcity, comprehensive expertise, and individual self-sufficiency helped shape industrial education. AI changes not only access to information, but also the division of cognitive work and the systems that produce knowledge. As the frontier of AI capability moves, how should education understand human ability and value?
Read the essay→If AI can do everything, what should humans learn?
A conditional thought experiment: if AI surpassed humans at every cognitive task, education would become a deliberate social choice rather than a necessity for production. During a potentially long transition, the essay proposes defending one’s work: people must substantiate the results they present, while schools provide credible evidence of that ability.
Read the essay→The first essay examines how the premises of an educational paradigm are changing. The second asks who should choose the purpose of education, and on what grounds, once “what AI cannot yet do” no longer defines human value. Both examine the relationship between knowledge, ability, and social institutions.
Compare the present with changes in knowledge and education brought by printing, industrialization, and the internet.
A four-part reading record connects these questions with research and educational practice.
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