AI and the Humble Calculator

AI and the Humble Calculator: a Historical Perspective

Insights from my two software engineer parents

Ryan Floyd

Feb 19, 2025

It’s common these days to compare AI to a calculator—a tool that helps us accomplish tasks. I’ve wondered: were people worried when calculators became widespread that students would stop learning math? So I asked my parents for their perspective.

My parents aren’t worriers, but they also aren’t naïve. I would characterize their perspective—and probably, in turn, my own—along the lines of Ecclesiastes: To everything, there is a season. Both good and bad things happen, and you should be ready.

My mother is a retired software engineer—the kind of "female coder" that, I gather, movies and books are written about—though she never made a big deal about being a woman in that field. My father is a retired electrical engineer who also taught himself multiple programming languages along the way just for fun.

When I was in second grade, I wasn’t terribly enthused about math, so my dad built a computer game for our black-and-green PC at home in the 1980s. He even incorporated my own unusual slang to make learning math more engaging. I loved it. I point to that time as a spark that helped fuel in solving puzzles in life.

Like the rest of us, my parents have been experimenting with AI tools. They’ve been interested in how I use AI, as well as my concerns about it.

Here’s a conversation I had with them:

Me: Do you remember when you first had access to calculators?

Parents: Yes, but it didn’t seem like that big of a deal.

Me: Were people suddenly worried that we would stop learning math because calculators would replace us?

Parents: No, I don’t remember anything like that. Calculators helped us solve more problems in the same amount of time. In fact, the actual volume of math we did actually increased. I don’t remember being worried that my children wouldn’t learn how to calculate a cube root or a logarithm correctly. That said, people have definitely become worse at doing math in their heads because of calculators, and that’s disappointing.

Me: I think a lot of parents (like me) are concerned about the role—or lack thereof—that actual writing or even reading or other skills will or won’t play in the future.

Parents: [Calmly] The new technology is neat. I don’t remember being particularly concerned about calculators. They seemed like tools to help people do more. But I am very worried about AI’s ability to steal identities and impersonate people. That’s the part that worries me.

Wisdom.

This document is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase any securities or investment advisory services. I am the Portfolio Manager of Barca Capital, LLC, but the views I express are my own and not necessarily those of my firm.