They Said Calculators Were Cheating Too: A Love Letter to the Tools That Change Us

A Familiar Feeling

When I was a kid, calculators were still controversial.

I remember teachers warning us: “You won’t really understand math if you rely on those buttons.” And if you dared bring one out too early, especially during a test, it was considered cheating. Somehow, getting the answer wasn’t enough. You had to suffer for it.

Sound familiar?

Today, the same argument is being made about AI.

We’re hearing:

• “It makes people lazy.”

• “It’s not fair.”

• “It’s going to ruin education.”

• “It’s cheating.”

But history tells us: we’ve had this conversation before. Many times.

The Calculator Panic

Let’s go back.

When calculators first entered classrooms in the 1980s, many people (especially educators) pushed back hard. They said it would erode our ability to think, to compute, to grasp the underlying logic of math. But over time, calculators became just another tool. Not a replacement for learning, a companion to it. We didn’t stop teaching math. We started teaching differently.

Google and the “Death of Critical Thinking”

Then came the internet. And with it, Google.

Suddenly, answers were everywhere. And people worried: would students ever bother to memorize anything again? Would research skills disappear? Would curiosity die? How is it any different from an Encyclopedia?

Of course, none of that happened. Instead, we learned to ask better questions. We moved from remembering facts to connecting ideas. From regurgitation to discernment.

AI now invites the same shift, and sparks the same fears.

Other Hair-Brained Ideas That Changed Everything

It’s always been this way.

People said the printing press would flood the world with dangerous ideas.

They said the sewing machine would put women out of work.

They said cars were reckless and loud and would never replace horses. They scared livestock. They were unnatural. People weren’t meant to move that fast. Trains were dangerous…. Do you think there were people who said the wheel was somehow dangerous?

Every time a tool comes along that changes the game, there’s resistance. Not because it’s bad, but because it asks us to change and grow.

Who Gets to Use the Tools

As my partner recently pointed out, there's always a common theme:

"The common people shouldn't be using the new technology."

This observation cuts to the heart of something deeper: the gatekeeping of innovation.

Technology access shifts power paradigms.

Historically, when new tools become available, the people most vocal about their dangers often aren’t the ones being displaced or helped. They’re the ones who already had access to knowledge, power, and control.

AI has the potential to redistribute some of that power. But not everyone wants that.

For marginalized communities, new tools have never just been about convenience. They’re about access. Opportunity. Voice.

When people say AI is “cheating,” what they sometimes mean is: “It levels the playing field in ways I’m not comfortable with.” 

Expecting someone else to struggle to do something that is easier for you defies all logic.  Why should someone have to struggle more to do the same thing you did? Why expect someone to?

That discomfort isn’t always personal, it’s systemic. Because when historically excluded groups gain access to tools that let them write, create, analyze, design, and lead without gatekeeper approval, the power dynamics shift.

And that’s the real disruption.

The Invitation

This isn’t about being “pro-AI” or “anti-AI.”

It’s about being willing to learn. To adapt. To use the tools we’ve been given wisely, just like our ancestors did.

If there’s any real danger, it’s not from AI replacing us.

It’s from us refusing to evolve with it.

We don’t have to lose our humanity.

We just have to stop insisting that doing things the hard way is the only way to prove we’re smart.

Let’s be the generation that learns better tools, instead of resisting improvements, and expecting everything to be a bootstrap argument excuse, too.