Reading a book is a form of communication between the writers the readers, and literary culture enriches this with the ongoing interactions around texts. The argument voiced by Socrates in the Phaedrus is not primarily that it removes or stifles interaction but that it undermines memory (and thinking) and that it will "create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves". AFAIK, there is well established research that shows that the move from oral to literate cultures does indeed bear this out. More recent studies about how wayfinding deteriorates when we rely on GPS seems a like a similar dynamic.

There is another charge against writing in the Phaedrus, which is that texts cannot answer for themselves (contrary to spoken interlocutors) or adjust their communication to the needs and character of the reader:

> when they have been once written down they are tumbled about anywhere among those who may or may not understand them, and know not to whom they should reply, to whom not: and, if they are maltreated or abused, they have no parent to protect them; and they cannot protect or defend themselves

An interesting thing about computation is that it is a writing and re-writing that can indeed be responsive and, in a non-trivial sense, "answer for itself". LLMs do this in a form that is obviously very successful for engagement (and for hype) and for producing a lot of compelling output.

I think the Phaedrus also has something to say here:

> Soc. Then [they who who knows the just and good and honourable] will not seriously incline to "write" his thoughts "in water" with pen and ink, sowing words which can neither speak for themselves nor teach the truth adequately to others?

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> Phaedr. No, that is not likely.

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> Soc. No, that is not likely--in the garden of letters he will sow and plant, but only for the sake of recreation and amusement; he will write them down as memorials to be treasured against the forgetfulness of old age, by himself, or by any other old man who is treading the same path. He will rejoice in beholding their tender growth; and while others are refreshing their souls with banqueting and the like, this will be the pastime in which his days are spent.