Nivex 🐧 📻Mar 20

The Homework Machine
by Shel Silverstein

The Homework Machine,
Oh, the Homework Machine,
Most perfect
contraption that's ever been seen.
Just put in your homework, then drop in a dime,
Snap on the switch, and in ten seconds' time,
Your homework comes out, quick and clean as can be.
Here it is— 'nine plus four?' and the answer is 'three.'
Three?
Oh me . . .
I guess it's not as perfect
As I thought it would be.

Henke von EMar 20
Show threadNivex 🐧 📻

This poem was published in the 1981 book "A Light In The Attic". It is accompanied by an illustration therein.

ref https://www.insightfultroll.com/blog/2025/12/30/homework-machine/

Mar 20 at 3:11pmWeb
Show threadThomas StockingerMar 20
@nivex Reality check in 2026: The part where the protagonist revises their enthusiasm because of the wrong answer is revealed to be unduly optimistic.
Show threadCassandrichMar 20
@thstockinger @nivex I think it's pretty realistic for kids. It's the adults who keep refusing to "revise their enthusiasm".
Show threadThomas StockingerMar 20
@dalias @nivex 100% agree about the adults...
Show threadCassandrichMar 20

@thstockinger @nivex When kids use it, it's knowing the output is bs (that's why "that's AI" is the playground retort for something fake) and just deeming the assignment not worth doing right because the whole system is bs (even if they can't put it in those words).

When adults use it, it's genuinely admiring the naked emperor's majestic clothes.

Show threadThomas StockingerMar 20
@dalias @nivex I think I'm just insulated from that aspect, since the children in my personal orbit don't have that much ready access to it. Wasn't initially trying to say anything specifically about kids - I was definitely thinking of the allegedly grown-up folks today doing conspicuously worse than the kid in the poem.
Show threadRafael Pérez 🌱Mar 20
@nivex
Show threadDavid Mitchell Mar 20

@nivex

Ah the clear-sighted and prescient Shel Silverstein… I had all his books of poetry when I was a kid, maybe that’s part of the reason why Super-Auto-Carrot never impressed me?

Show threadEdelruth, PBS Passport HolderMar 20

@nivex

That's brilliant! Shel Silverstein predicts AI, and qualitatively at that.😁

Show threadRS, Author, Novelist, ProsaistMar 20

@nivex

[Illustration of a homework machine accompanied by a poem]

#AI version 1.0. Still problems with the accuracy in the current #chatGPT and #agenticAI versions.

Show threadNivex 🐧 📻Mar 20
@sfwrtr I don't understand the purpose of your post. I provided an alt text.
Show threadRS, Author, Novelist, ProsaistMar 21
@nivex I apologize for being unclear. I am not referring to the image or AltText, which I appreciate. I'm being a bit sarcastic in my reply, differently yet congruent to the poem, associating the homework machine with AI. The linked post (which I've now read) points out the poet "seems" to have predicted the failing of AI (the current version) to be also unable do homework accurately, indeed it catches the irony of a student's disappointment in using such a machine to accomplish a task rather than learning to do it themself.
Show threadNivex 🐧 📻Mar 21
@sfwrtr and the student's foresight to check the machine's work with a known input and output rather than blindly trusting it.
Show threadRS, Author, Novelist, ProsaistMar 21
@nivex Yep, there's that, too. The biggest AI failing being you need to be an expert to catch nuanced errors that go beyond simple fact checking. I didn't point out the need to curate answers as I felt that would add an additional layer beyond my assertion of AI being similarly inaccurate. I hate to admit very rarely to using AI as a search tool to at least chunk down complex questions to a list of sources as a starting point. When I was at school in the 80s, I used the librarian and libraries as my homework machine!