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Paired Texts > Are Stories A Key To Human Intelligence?

by Tania Lombrozo for NPR 2016

We've identified these texts as great options for text pairings based on similar themes, literary devices, topic, or writing style. Supplement your lesson with one or more of these options and challenge students to compare and contrast the texts. To assign a paired text, click on the text to go to its page and click the "Assign Text" button there.

Drones Put Spying Eyes in The Sky
Drones Put Spying Eyes in The Sky
Stephen Ornes

In "Drones Put Spying Eyes in the Sky," scientists are finding ways to use drones, or unmanned flying robots, in research and conservation efforts. 

Pair “Drones Put Spying Eyes in the Sky” with “Are Stories a Key to Human Intelligence?” and ask students to discuss the evolution of technology. How has the utilization of machines changed over time? What are benefits and disadvantages of such advanced technology?

9th Grade News 1010L
Experts Debate: Will Computers Edge People Out Of Entire Careers?
Experts Debate: Will Computers Edge People Out Of Entire Careers?
David Kestenbaum

Experts discuss their competing viewpoints about whether or not technological breakthroughs will make obsolete a significant number of jobs.

Pair “Experts Debate: Will Computers Edge People Out of Entire Careers?” with “Are Stories a Key to Human Intelligence?” and ask students to discuss the potential disadvantages of computers developing intelligence more similar to humans. What are the arguments for and against computers developing human intelligence in the two texts?

9th Grade Interview 990L
Human or Machine? A.I. Experts Reportedly Pass The 'Turing Test'
Human or Machine? A.I. Experts Reportedly Pass The 'Turing Test'
Scott Neuman

In 2014, a chatbot named Eugene Goostman fooled a third of human testers into believing it was a real human.

Pair “Human or Machine? A.I. Experts Reportedly Pass the ‘Turing Test’” with “Are Stories a Key to Human Intelligence?” and ask students to discuss the various forms of human intelligence explored in the two texts. How does an AI’s narrative intelligence compare to its ability to hold a conversation with a human?

10th Grade News 1340L
Can Television Be Considered Literature and Taught in English Classes?
Can Television Be Considered Literature and Taught in English Classes?
Shelby Ostergaard

In "Can Television Be Considered Literature and Taught in English Classes?" Ostergaard explores the potential benefits and disadvantages of studying television in classrooms.

Pair “Are Stories a Key to Human Intelligence?” with “Can Television Be Considered Literature and Taught in English Classes?” and ask students to discuss the value of stories. How do both texts explore the connection between stories and mental development? Do students think the value of a story depends on the form it’s presented in? Why or why not?

10th Grade Essay 1120L
The Last Curiosity
The Last Curiosity
Lucy Tan

Artificial intelligence participates in an experiment to understand the human experience after the destruction of man.

Pair “Are Stories a Key to Human Intelligence?” with “The Last Curiosity” and ask students to discuss the role stories could have played in the Woken’s understanding of the human experience. Do students think that the author suggests the Woken were studying stories alongside “blockbuster hits, like The Godfather and Romance of the Three Kingdoms and One Thousand and One Nights”? How would the Woken respond to the researchers’ approach to artificial intelligence in the article?

10th Grade Science Fiction 920L
ChatGPT Resurrected My Dead Father
ChatGPT Resurrected My Dead Father
Jon Michael Varese

In "ChatGPT Resurrected My Dead Father," the author uses his personal grief and technological background to explore one aspect of developing a more "human-like" artificial intelligence. Pair “Are Stories a Key to Human Intelligence?” with “ChatGPT Resurrected My Dead Father” and ask students to discuss the role of storytelling in the development of AI that can produce human-like text. According to “Are Stories a Key to Human Intelligence?,” what role does storytelling play in human intelligence? How does it enhance the development of artificial intelligence? In “ChatGPT Resurrected My Dead Father,” how is narrative intelligence used to train the various chatbots described in the text? The author of “Are Stories a Key to Human Intelligence?” states that “there’s evidence that people trust robots more, and can work with them more effectively, when the robots offer more human-like explanations” (Paragraph 5). How is this position illustrated in “ChatGPT Resurrected My Dead Father”? Is sharing cultural norms like storytelling between humans and machines a good thing? Why, or why not?

12th Grade Essay 1140L