It seems like LLMs will accelerate the phenomenon of post-literacy in the public. It already seems like the sophistication of people’s reading and writing has decreased with the decline in the cultural centrality of books, as well as the short, staccato informality of unedited text that most of us have grown accustomed to via social media.

This in itself is not such a big deal and a lot of boring corporate writing deserves to be automated by LLMs. But the psychological impact of moving from a literate to a post-literate society is significant. Democracy presupposed a literate public and literacy has neurological effects that are arguably a necessity for democratic deliberation. 

If we’ve moved on from mass literacy I expect democracy will become increasingly farcical and managed through technological manipulation. 

We’re already much of the way there but these new advancements in blurting out passable text seem ready to put the last nail in the coffin of the republic of letters.

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Being able to read and write now is like how the ancients used to spend their lives memorizing and retelling long epic stories, back before reading and writing were even invented. 

It's basically a nifty skill. Impressive that people were able to do that sort of thing. but practically useless now.