AI Is Making Us Stupid(er)
We already know how this works. Just look at ubiquitous GPS. It's infantilizing us. No one knows where they are anymore. We just follow directions. In 200 feet turn left at the stop sign. I've become so dependent on Siri to tell me how to get where I need to go I can't even find my way around locales I used to navigate by memory, or at worst, by peering at a map. Granted, this is because in Greater Boston we don't have streets organized in a grid pattern; it's more like spaghetti. So learning your way around takes some doing. But it's preposterous to now be helpless where once I was independent. Here's a great example. In 2019 my wife and I went to Venice. Talk about a lack of a grid pattern! It makes Boston look like Phoenix. Over the course of a few days we are able to orient ourselves by memorizing certain landmarks and also by consulting the map occasionally. We made Venice ours! Then, in 2023 we went back and this time we relied on our friend's pho...
