{"id":13391,"date":"2025-08-25T10:11:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T08:11:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/uncategorized\/were-getting-dumber-and-technology-is-contributing-to-that\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T18:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T16:18:09","slug":"were-getting-dumber-and-technology-is-contributing-to-that","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/ai-lifestyle-2\/were-getting-dumber-and-technology-is-contributing-to-that\/","title":{"rendered":"\ud83d\udd12 We’re getting dumber, and technology is contributing to that."},"content":{"rendered":"

Today, 2500 years later, looking at my own brain collaborating with ChatGPT, I must admit that the ancient philosopher knew what he was talking about.<\/strong><\/p>

Our civilization is built on cognitive prosthetics. Writing replaced oral memory. Calculators took over counting. GPS has relieved us of the need to navigate. Each of these technologies is a Faustian bargain: we gain power, losing proficiency.<\/strong><\/p>

Recent research by Dr. Kosmyna and her team from MIT shows just how deep this process goes. When we use ChatGPT for writing, our brain activity decreases \u2014 especially in areas responsible for creativity and language planning. This isn’t a metaphor: fMRI scans show how the regions of the prefrontal cortex dim as AI takes over the burden of formulating thoughts<\/strong>. People who regularly use AI assistants show less activity in brain regions associated with semantic memory and language processing.<\/p>

This isn’t the first time technology has changed our neurology. Studies on London taxi drivers have shown that intensive training in spatial orientation enlarges the hippocampus. What happens when GPS completely replaces this skill? We already know the answer: younger generations show deficits in tasks requiring spatial imagination.<\/p>

But maybe that’s the point? Could cultural evolution be about outsourcing cognitive functions?<\/strong> After all, we don’t complain that we can’t hunt mammoths or start fires with flint. Besides, our brain has limitations, but its externalizations don’t. Moreover, there is even such a marine animal as the sea squirt: after completing its larval stage, when it finds a good place to settle, it gets rid of its brain, reducing it to a simple nerve ganglion, because it won’t need to think anymore, and using the brain is indeed a significant energy effort, seemingly unnecessary from an evolutionary perspective. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter \u2014 just don\u2019t think!\u201d one might like to echo after the Quartz Robot from Lem\u2019s “The Cyberiad”.<\/p>

The problem is that we’re losing more than just skills. We’re losing the ability to think deeply. When Google answers every question in 0.3 seconds, why bother pondering any longer? When ChatGPT drafts our emails, why practice expressing ourselves with precision? Studies from MIT show that students who use AI to write essays not only struggle more with writing independently later but also demonstrate a shallower understanding of the topics discussed.<\/p>

Neuroplasticity works both ways. A brain that isn’t used deteriorates. Experiments using neuroimaging show that after just a few weeks of regular use of AI assistants, there’s a decrease in the density of synaptic connections in the brain’s language areas.<\/p>

The paradox lies in the fact that we’ve never been more “intelligent” \u2014 in terms of access to information and tools \u2014 yet, at the same time, we’ve never been less cognitively independent. We’re like bodybuilders on steroids: impressive at first glance, helpless without chemical support. It’s not about technophobia. It’s about understanding the cost. Every cognitive prosthetic is a choice: we gain efficiency, we lose agility.<\/strong> The problem is that we make these choices unreflectively, driven by convenience and time pressure.<\/p>

Could the answer be conscious balancing?<\/strong> Using GPS in a foreign city, but practicing navigation in familiar terrain? Using ChatGPT to gather material, but writing by hand? In other words, intelligently implementing the Me+AI<\/em> postulate, which treats technology as tools, not replacements.<\/p>

Because the alternative is simple and frightening: we’ll become a generation of cognitive couch potatoes, unable to think for ourselves without algorithmic support \u2014 like in Pump Six<\/em> by Paolo Bacigalupi. Socrates would be turning in his grave. Or maybe not \u2014 after all, he predicted exactly this.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Socrates was right. When in the 5th century BCE, in Phaedrus, he warned about the invention of writing, arguing that it would destroy human memory, he was laughed at as a technophobe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":247,"featured_media":13371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[799],"tags":[],"popular":[],"difficulty-level":[36],"ppma_author":[614],"class_list":["post-13391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai-lifestyle-2","difficulty-level-easy"],"acf":[],"authors":[{"term_id":614,"user_id":247,"is_guest":0,"slug":"prof-dr-hab-dariusz-jemielniak","display_name":"prof. dr hab. Dariusz Jemielniak","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/maxresdefault-1-e1742292469999.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/maxresdefault-1-e1742292469999.jpg"},"first_name":"Dariusz","last_name":"Jemielniak","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":"Profesor zarz\u0105dzania Akademii Leona Ko\u017ami\u0144skiego, gdzie kieruje katedr\u0105 MINDS (Management in Networked and Digital Societies). Pracuje te\u017c jako faculty associate w Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society na Harvardzie. Wiceprezes Polskiej Akademii Nauk. Cz\u0142onek Rady Programowej CampusAI."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/247"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13391"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13392,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13391\/revisions\/13392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13391"},{"taxonomy":"popular","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/popular?post=13391"},{"taxonomy":"difficulty-level","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/difficulty-level?post=13391"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/haimagazine.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=13391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}