By Dr. John Mark Reynolds

I may be amongst the last high school students taught to use a “slide rule.*” Few are those who even know what this device is, so let me tell you what AI (Grok) told me about it:

“A slide rule is a mechanical analog computing device used for performing mathematical calculations, primarily multiplication, division, roots, logarithms, and trigonometry, through the alignment of graduated logarithmic scales on sliding rulers. In its basic form, it consists of a fixed outer ruler (or body) with a movable central slide and often a transparent cursor for precise readings.”

To freshman me, this “slide rule” looked like two rulers joined together covered with mystic markings. Used correctly, one learned something about mathematics and could quickly perform calculations that one could do with paper and pencil, but much more slowly.

I learned to use one correctly but have not used one in decades. I would not say learning to use a slide rule was a total waste of time, but there are few closer examples. Why?

Calculators made them obsolete, a fact that was already true when I was in high school, but one which our teachers steadfastly ignored. There were two essential reasons given for this: one practical and the other theological. 

First, by using a slide rule we were understanding mathematics in a different way than “just plugging in the numbers.” 

Second, since the “end times” might come at any moment, the slide rule, which did not depend on batteries, would be useful in those difficult times. I am unclear how seriously this last argument was being made!

There was merit in teaching how numbers work and in why a “slide rule” worked. The numbers on the slide rule were not magical but were amazing. The history of the tool was interesting: the ability to use a slide rule well helped get us to the moon after all. 

Just because a machine (even a slide rule!) can do a task for us more efficiently, does not mean beginners should not learn the early concepts without said tools, (including slide rules).

There is a good reason we still teach students about addition, subtraction, square roots, and other mathematical concepts using only the tools of paper and pencil. We can better use tools like calculators when we understand what we are doing without the more complex tools.

Pencil and paper are tools, slide rules are tools, a calculator is a tool.

Creativity and human excellence come when the tools serve our desires. We glorify the engineers in Houston who used the slide rules, not their tools. 

Calculators did jobs that needed doing better than slide rules in most every way, so calculators (and the technological descendants of calculators) replaced slide rules. Better tools enable us to do, if we wish, even greater things.

As a boy, I did hear, sometimes from people being serious, that calculators and other devices were bad and sometimes diabolic. Calculators would destroy our ability to think mathematically. Decades later I am assured by former students, including a NASA engineer, that we can still do mathematics. We learned to limit the use of the tool, and kept learning mathematics!

Sometimes critics would suggest that diabolic agents would use the calculators to control humanity. This is common in the history of new technologies. My brother and I once experimented with numerology and our Texas Instrument calculator to try to discern the name of the “antichrist.” We did discover that 7734 turned upside-down said “hell.” Others have shown us similar such insights, the kind meaningful only to boys, that are best forgotten.

Calculators did not usher in the antichrist, though one hellbent could become an antichrist using a paper and pencil, a slide rule, or a calculator. It turns out that every new tool can be misused and gives both the wicked and mischievous new ways to do old evils. The printing press has given the possibility of books to those not owning a castle. Digital texts have broken down the monopoly on information some elite institutions had. Those changes can and have been misused, but on the whole humanity is better off for them.

The opposite intellectual error from terror of new tools would be careless use of them.

Digital devices can do great good. This does not mean we should adopt them in every case without thought. We should recognize that tools can harm as well as teach. This is particularly true of introducing tools to younglings. The staple gun in my garage is very useful for Hope, yet we will introduce it to the grandchildren with great care.

Not everything they wish to staple should be stapled.

Orthodox Christianity, which contributed to the rise of the scientific revolution, has a good record on new tools. We are not quick to condemn or hasty to adopt. We know the ways humans can go wrong, so we do not expect any technology to bring on paradise. Yet simultaneously we are not so pessimistic about people as to forgo any progress.

Plumbing of the modern sort is a great good, after all.

When facing “artificial intelligence” then, a classical school will work to avoid both extremes. We can be confident that demons are no more likely to be able to use a digital device than a pencil sharpener. The devils have access to our thoughts, and it is at that level that they can deceive us to think that “artificial intelligence” is intelligence.

My computer no more plays chess than Grok knew the answer to “what is a slide rule.” I play chess, often competing against a device that appears to “play” chess. My pencil sharpener sharpens the pencils that I choose to put in that device. Grok gave me an output to my request that was concise and fit what I knew to be true already.

There are complicated ethical issues in the way “artificial intelligence” makes images. Is it using some person’s creation to build something “new” without their consent? What of errors that Al still frequently makes on even the simplest question? It has often taken me four or five queries to get Grok to “admit” that the data it supplied me was wrong.

As a tool, artificial intelligence (like the spell check I am using at present) is helpful, but only as a help, a tool. Al may free us from certain tasks, if we wish, just as calculating machines like slide rules or computers freed us from other tasks. As with any new device, particularly one that can be exploited by our vices, our pastors must take care and help us not misuse technology.

At present as a new and particularly powerful tool there are many examples of pernicious misuse. The quiet work-a-day use of these tools in our writing, say grammar check, gets less attention (as it should). Guard rails are needed: sensible and sane ones.

We can use that freedom to waste time or we can create new jobs and opportunities.

The good classical school, building on the message of Plato and Saint Basil, will love mathematics and the sciences. We will use the best tools of the time as both of these thinkers did!

We will use them in pursuit of goodness, truth, and beauty and not for their own sake.

As schools look at technology, they should implement it with care after research is done on the impact of adoption at each level of education. We should not rush to use, nor quickly condemn. This moderation is a great classical virtue.

Let us educate ourselves with courage, moderation, justice, and prudence to use the new tools God is allowing us with faith, hope, and charity.

Three cheers for slide rules, and at least one cheer for Al.

Blessed Elias, pray for us.

Some creative teacher somewhere is probably using them even now to discuss how scales work, and helping as a result. However, the utility of the device in general is long gone.

*I am confident that there is much to learn by using a slide rule correctly as a teaching tool.