Many people are already fragmented; they lack the ability to read, think, and analyze.

We’ve been domesticated by short videos, short-form content, and AI. Our gaze is numb; everyone we meet feels like facing Baidu—just tell me the answer, and keep it under three sentences, or I’ll crash.

Current AI excels at talking nonsense with authority about things that aren’t its specialty, and sounding convincingly expert about nonsense. You think you’re tricking AI into doing your work, but you’re really fooling yourself. You can bluff your assignments, but the exam won’t be fooled.

Today’s young people are frighteningly shrewd. On one hand, they relentlessly train themselves and know exactly what they want. On the other, they constantly produce bad advice—even using AI to generate it—going to great lengths to sabotage their peers’ thinking.

It’s like the dawn of human evolution: one group of apes was advancing while another stood still. Years later, the same family was separated by no more than the fence of a zoo exhibit—people on one side, monkeys on the other.