Steve Jobs once described the computer as *The Bicycle of the Mind.* The idea is machine enhances human capability, leveraging its power and making it more efficient. ![[Einstein on bicycle.png]] Jobs could have used the metaphor of a *race car* or a *jet plane,* but he choose something human-powered intentionally. That the human mind provides the power - the machine makes it better. What do we get if we extend this metaphor in the age of AI? I'd like the idea of an *Iron Man Suit*, a machine that super charges human capability. But the overwhelming power of the *Iron Man Suit* makes the human power irrelevant. While a bicycle leverages human power and the rider actually becomes fitter. The *Iron Man Suit* allows the human to weaken and atrophy. Sadly, the more apt metaphor may be those *Hoverchairs* on Axiom in the movie *WALL-E.* In the movie, 700-years of space travel "waiting" to return to earth has made humans unrecognizable. Axiom tends to their every need and want and the peopel have surrendered to luxury and passivity. ![[Hoverchairs from WALLE.png]] We can avoid this fate by remaining vigilant against what's called *cognitive surrender.* This is the tendency to overly rely on AI chatbots for answers without checking. And worse, outsourcing thinking itself to AI. It's like accepting the spell check correction without thinking. In a June 2026 article in The Atlantic, [The People Who Will Thrive in the AI Age]( https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/06/ai-open-ai-anthropic/687689/), David Brooks offers some proactive advice: 1. Ask for hints, not answers 2. Start with blank page (do your own work first) 3. Rotate between AI and non-AI cognative work 4. Maintain a strict distinction between rote work and creative work (never use AI for essays) 5. Ask for thinkers, not thinking (ask for summaries those who have already addressed the problem) That's the difference between a bicycle and a hoverchair. PS: Watch Jobs talk about The Bicyle of the Mind on YouTube (1:17) [here](https://youtu.be/KmuP8gsgWb8?si=2WSQ2QjatKKsE7Ra)