I was 11 years old when Texas Instruments released the TI 2500, one of the first pocket calculators. While I remember one around the house — it might still be in or on my father’s desk — it wasn’t mine. My father was generous but he wouldn’t have shelled out $150 (a lot of money in those days) to save me some mental effort.
That wasn’t an issue because my teachers banned the use of calculators at home and at school. They worried that relying on those devices would undermine development of our own ability to do calculations, even relatively menial ones. Being a goody two-shoes and having a grandfather who delighted in teaching me how to do those operations in my head, the ban wasn’t a big deal.
That old concern is resurfacing with the proliferation of artificial intelligence apps and bots. A growing body of evidence affirms what should be obvious: The brain is a muscle and like any other muscle, it atrophies with disuse. The spread of tools that do our thinking for us is, naturally enough, weakening our ability to think.
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