Sure, but when you are doing calculations by hand you don’t calculate out to extraneous degree of precision because it is more work, and if you are using a slide rule, table lookup, or nomograph you are inherently limited to the precision of that instrument/table/graph, so the limitations of the precision of the calculation are obvious (and the consequences of exceeding them become evident if you are running any kind of iterative calculation). If you are using a calculator or software like Matlab (or especially Excel) then it isn’t obvious, and people whose experience is largely limited to using these tools for all calculations will argue that it doesn’t matter because the computer handles the math and you can just round off the final result, which is an argument that does work most of the time for most straightforward calculations but can get you in a real mix when doing certain types of operationsOr comparing to other results (and of course can cause all manner of problems with computer code if you are mixing and matching levels of precision.
Similarly, having a proficiency at spelling doesn’t matter if spellcheck is always around to correct you…until it isn’t, or it uses a homonym that sounds correct but means something completely different. As human beings, we are in the business of knowing things and communicating them with a degree of explicit definition that other animals do not possess. Handing over significant parts of that fundamental skill set to a chatbot or other AI so we can spend more time watching kitten videos or following celebrities on Twitter wars is not a good trade.
Stranger