Technology, Connected - Prompting Is Not Thinking

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

Can you use AI to think better or think more critically? Philosopher Pia Lauritzen says no. The second we give up to the shortcut use AI, we are letting go of the very basic condition that forces us to think.When we ask if machines can think, the first question should be: why do humans think? Why do we think?For Pia, it is fairly simple. We think because we know there is something we do not know. We have a problem. There is a gap. A gap between what I know and what I want to know. So I have to start thinking. That is why I ask these questions and that is why I put up with this pain in my head of trying to figure something out that I do not know.The machine does not have that problem. It does not know that it does not know. It is like an animal. It does not know that it does not know. Of course it is a matter of how you understand thinking. But if you consult the old thinkers and not just the engineers and technologists, then you will have a really hard time finding anyone who would say that a machine could ever think. And if it cannot think itself, why should it be able to help us think? We are the only ones who know how to do that.This is the core problem. AI feels helpful. It removes the discomfort of not knowing where to start. It fills the blank sheet. But that discomfort is not a bug. That discomfort is the feature. That discomfort is what thinking is.And it is at this point that I am reminded of the scene in Con Air. Define irony.Please enjoy the show.Cheers, Mark & Jeremy.PS: Subscribe so other curious minds like you can find our channel.--Other ways to connect with us:⁠Listen to every podcast⁠Follow us on ⁠Instagram⁠Follow us on ⁠X⁠Follow Mark on ⁠LinkedIn⁠Follow Jeremy on ⁠LinkedIn⁠Read our ⁠Substack⁠Email: [e-mail]

just as questions are not innocent, technology is definitely not innocent either. And if we just think of technology as something we use, then we forget that it has this impact on how we think and how we understand not only our surroundings, but also each other and how we understand ourselves. So we start adapting to the technology. We even have a word like prompting.

Prompting is something completely different than asking a question. Prompting is adapting your questions or your search to the machine. So you are trying to figure out how can I give the machine this task? How can I give the machine this, ask this, the machine this question in a way that it will be able to answer. That's what prompting is about. Asking questions is the exact opposite. It's about asking questions that might not, where I don't, I have absolutely no idea whether there is an answer or what the answer is. I'm asking because I don't know, because I don't, have any experience with dealing with this. I need someone else to help me understand this.

So I'm not adapting because I don't know what I should adapt it to. I'm simply exploring and simply experimenting. So if we are not aware of that, the difference between prompting and asking, the difference between being born to think and being built to think, the difference between letting technology guide our questions and let our inner insecurity. or uncertainty and the unknown guide our questions if we're not aware of these differences, then we will not learn and grow as humans. Then we will become something else,

which is really scary for me, at least, because I see so much beauty in what happens when we do it ourselves. Is being aware of these differences in of itself enough to use AI to think better or think more critically? I don't think you can use AI for that. You don't think you can use AI to think better or clearer at all? No, no, I don't think so. Because thinking is something else.

You know, when we ask if machines can think, I think the first question should be, why do humans think? Why do we think? For me, it's fairly simple. We think because we know there's something we don't know. We have a problem, right? There's a gap.

There's a gap between what I know and what I want to know. So I have to start thinking. That's why I ask these questions, and that's why I put up with this pain in my head of trying to figure something out that I don't know. If you think about it, the machine doesn't have that problem, it doesn't know that it doesn't know. It's kind of like it's like an animal, right?

It doesn't know that it doesn't even know. So, and we're not like God's, you know, God know that he knows. or she knows everything. So that's a completely different domain. But humans are the only, the French philosopher, Maloponzi, is that this fragile mixture of animals and gods, who knows that they don't know. So they have to ask questions,

they have to use their own thinking, come up with their own ways of navigating, and the second we think, oh, but I can make it easier by using a machine, we're letting go of the very basic condition that forces us to think. So I think it's very, when I talk to young people, and they're saying, well, I don't use chat to cheat anything.

I just, when I get a task, I'm not sure how to stop. I just, you know, ask the machine, and then it gives me a few starting points. So I don't have this blank sheet. But the whole point is that the blank sheet is what forces you to think. So of course it's a matter of how you understand thinking. But if you consult the old thinkers, and not just the engineers and technologists, then you would have a really hard time finding anyone

who would say that a machine could ever think. And if it cannot think itself, why should it be able to help us think? We're the only ones who know how to do that.