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.

Show threadNivex 🐧 📻Mar 20

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/

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 Stockinger
@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.
Mar 20 at 4:09pmWeb