You have to do the work yourself: a Roman parable for the AI age
alfred_lua · x · 2026-10-18
Alfred Lua retells Seneca's story of Calvisius Sabinus, a rich Roman who bought educated slaves to fake learning — and froze mid-word at dinner parties — as a parable for the AI era: having answers in seconds isn't the same as knowing, understanding, and acting. Even after fruitlessly going back and forth with Claude on his business model, he realized he had to pick up a pen and think it through himself. AI can help, but the thinking is still ours to do.
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