I wonder what the critical mass of total illiteracy might be to advance us officially into another Dark Age.

This tool is accelerating the illiteracy rate, no matter how much "busywork" it might eliminate.

To write well you need to read quite a bit. To even think rationally requires a certain level of fluency. It doesn't take much to be merely functionally literate (able to read ads, public signage, and bureaucratic forms) but if this is what most people aspire to, we are on the way to being even more cattle-like in our deference to those who control our lives and, increasingly, dictate what we think and believe.

An illiterate population is a subservient population.