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AP Language Practice Argumentative Essay

Prompt

In The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America (1964), a book on the relationship between technology and culture in the United States, cultural historian Leo Marx describes a defining human conflict in the modern age. On the one hand, Marx argues, “the machine” attracts us because technology amplifies human power, increasing the efficiency of human labor and expanding human wealth; on the other hand, it threatens to destroy “the garden,” the spaces and activities where humans find comfort and rest.

Write an essay that argues your position on the extent to which it is possible to achieve a harmonious balance between the ideals represented by the machine and the garden.

In your response you should do the following:

  • Respond to the prompt with a thesis that presents a defensible position.
  • Provide evidence to support your line of reasoning.
  • Explain how the evidence supports your line of reasoning.
  • Use appropriate grammar and punctuation in communicating your argument.

Response

Within the past couple decades, technology has seen a tremendous explosion throughout the whole world. With the internet, information can be brought to the fingertips of any person as fast as they can hit the search button. But there has always been the argument that technology makes people lazier. Instead of needing to plant your own food, society is able to simply go out and purchase it. Additionally, with the recent release of LLMs (Large Language Models), which has been known to be implemented in services such as ChatGPT, GPT-4, AutoGPT, or LLAMA, it has wrecked havoc across the existing educational system, with students generating well written essays at a moments notice. Has technology made society lazier? Yes. But is being lazier necessarily a bad thing? No. The important thing is balance and recognizing that machines are simply to assist us - society cannot let technology control us. As technology revolutionizes and integrates itself within our lives, a harmonious balance between the ideals represented my a machine and garden become more critical to maintain the values upheld by society.

As a student who has a strong technical background in software, I’ve enjoyed the benefits of using LLMs to complete tasks I deem as boring and invaluable. I’ve had GPT-3.5 use it’s massive 1-billion parameter to write code, and summarize long articles and notes. Have I seen GPT-4’s 1-trillion parameter model respond to previous years AP Language FRQ prompts? Of course - and it’s really amazing to see what these LLMs can do. But as I’ve used this new technology, I’ve come to realize that there is a crucial balance to maintain between technology and me. My individual value, my ability to work - aspects that society values, need to be protected. If it’s simply replaceable by an AI - I wouldn’t have as much as a value in society. In FIRST Robotics, one of my mentors said that, “It’s really cool to have AI do your work for you so you can sit back and relax, but it’s also scary that AI can do your work for you.” If any job is replaceable - it will be replaced. The important aspect when it comes to using technology is to maintain this balance between technology and society.

This then begs the question, what would a proper balance between society and technology look like? For example, I personally have found a very unique way to balance technology and AP Language within my life. While it has been extremely tempting to simply generate responses based off given homework assignments, essays, I’ve found it more valuable for me to use LLMs more as a personal tutor. I’ve taken every assignment that I’ve done in AP Language, given it to ChatGPT along with the grade and comments received on it. With this information, I’ve been able to ask ChatGPT to predict a grade that I would receive on a current assignment, as well as comments on what I can improve on. This unique use of technology has lead me to grow and learn a lot in terms of my writing capacity during this year. Another example I would strongly agree with this is with Microsoft’s next line of products called Copilot. Copilot is built to assist you when Microsoft tools, which allows you to fill in Excel sheets easily, have context-based autocorrect within Word, and Teams plugins that would summarize meetings, while providing specific information on parts that pertain to you. Maintaining this balance between technology and society has been exemplified with these new tools which Microsoft is building. Technology is supposed to assist us - not control us. This fine balance of technology and society can exist, and most importantly - should be sought after.

In conclusion, the harmonious balance between technology and society must be maintained. Technology is simply supposed to assist us, not control us. If we become a slave to technology, a mini-version of *The Matrix* could definitely become a reality. Therefore, in order to retain what society deems valuable, a fine, harmonious balance, though more difficult, should be maintained.