It's unclear if you've presented this quote in order to support or criticize the idea that new technologies make us dumber. (Perhaps that's intentional; if so, bravo).
To me, this feels like support. I was never an adult who could not read or write, so I can't check my experience against Socrates' specific concern. But speaking to the idea of memory, I now "outsource" a lot of my memory to my smartphone.
In the past, I would just remember my shopping list, and go to the grocery store and get what I needed. Sure, sometimes I'd forget a thing or two, but it was almost always something unimportant, and rarely was a problem. Now I have my list on my phone, but on many occasions where I don't make a shopping list on my phone, when I get to the grocery store I have a lot of trouble remembering what to get, and sometimes finish shopping, check out, and leave the store, only to suddenly remember something important, and have to go back in.
I don't remember phone numbers anymore. In college (~2000) I had the campus numbers (we didn't have cell phones yet) of at least two dozen friends memorized. Today I know my phone number, my wife's, and my sister's, and that's it. (But I still remember the phone number for the first house I lived in, and we moved out of that house when I was five years old. Interestingly, I don't remember the area code, but I suppose that makes sense, as area codes weren't required for local dialing in the US back in the 80s.)
Now, some of this I will probably ascribe to age: I expect our memory gets more fallible as we get older (I'm in my mid 40s). I used to have all my credit/debit card numbers, and their expiration dates and security codes, memorized (five or six of them), but nowadays I can only manage to remember two of them. (And I usually forget or mix up the expiration dates; fortunately many payment forms don't seem to check, or are lax about it.) But maybe that is due to new technology to some extent: most/all sites where I spend money frequently remember my card for me (and at most only require me to enter the security code). And many also take Paypal or Google Pay, which saves me from having to recall the numbers.
So I think new technology making us "dumber" is a very real thing. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing. You could say that, in all of my examples, technology serving the place of memory has freed up mental cycles to remember more important things, so it's a net positive. But I'm not so sure.
I don‘t think human memory works like that, at least not in theory. Storage is not the limiting factor of human memory, but rather retention. It takes time and effort to retain new information. In the past you spent some time and effort to memorize the shopping list and the phone number. Mulling it over in your mind (or out loud), repeated recalls, exposure, even mnemonic tricks like rhymes, alliterations, connecting with pictures, stories, etc. if what you had to remember was something more complicated/extensive/important. And retention is not forever, unless you repeat it, you will loose it. And you only have so much time for repetition and recall, so inevitably, there will be memories which won‘t be repeated, and can’t be recalled.
So when you started using technology to offload your memory, what you gained was the time and effort you previously spent encoding these things into your memory.
I think there is a fundamental difference though between phone book apps and LLMs. Loosing the ability to remember a phone number is not as severe as loosing the ability to form a coherent argument, or to look through sources, or for a programmer to work through logic, to abstract complex logic into simpler chunks. If a scholar looses the skill to look through sources, and a programmer looses the ability to abstract complex logic, they are loosing a fundamental part of their needed to do their jobs. This is like if a stage actor looses the ability to memorize the script, instead relying on a tape-recorder when they are on stage.
Now if a stage actor losses the ability to memorize the script, they will soon be out of a job, but I fear in the software industry (and academia) we are not so lucky. I suspect we will see a lot of people actually taking that tape recorder on stage, and continue to do their work as if nothing is more normal. And the drop in quality will predictably follow.
To me, this feels like support. I was never an adult who could not read or write, so I can't check my experience against Socrates' specific concern. But speaking to the idea of memory, I now "outsource" a lot of my memory to my smartphone.
In the past, I would just remember my shopping list, and go to the grocery store and get what I needed. Sure, sometimes I'd forget a thing or two, but it was almost always something unimportant, and rarely was a problem. Now I have my list on my phone, but on many occasions where I don't make a shopping list on my phone, when I get to the grocery store I have a lot of trouble remembering what to get, and sometimes finish shopping, check out, and leave the store, only to suddenly remember something important, and have to go back in.
I don't remember phone numbers anymore. In college (~2000) I had the campus numbers (we didn't have cell phones yet) of at least two dozen friends memorized. Today I know my phone number, my wife's, and my sister's, and that's it. (But I still remember the phone number for the first house I lived in, and we moved out of that house when I was five years old. Interestingly, I don't remember the area code, but I suppose that makes sense, as area codes weren't required for local dialing in the US back in the 80s.)
Now, some of this I will probably ascribe to age: I expect our memory gets more fallible as we get older (I'm in my mid 40s). I used to have all my credit/debit card numbers, and their expiration dates and security codes, memorized (five or six of them), but nowadays I can only manage to remember two of them. (And I usually forget or mix up the expiration dates; fortunately many payment forms don't seem to check, or are lax about it.) But maybe that is due to new technology to some extent: most/all sites where I spend money frequently remember my card for me (and at most only require me to enter the security code). And many also take Paypal or Google Pay, which saves me from having to recall the numbers.
So I think new technology making us "dumber" is a very real thing. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing. You could say that, in all of my examples, technology serving the place of memory has freed up mental cycles to remember more important things, so it's a net positive. But I'm not so sure.