Sentinel Philosophy: What Brain Processes Are We Willing to Give Up to AI?

Marshall McLuhan

Some people can't walk around the city without using an app. Increasingly, some people can't write an email without using AI to draft it first.

The Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan once argued that our technologies can both extend and amputate us. The wheel took us further than our feet ever did, but it made our feet go soft. This is known as cognitive atrophy. Cognitive atrophy is the idea that the less you use a certain brain function, the less able you are to use it again. And sometimes you will stop being able to use it at all.

So, if you stop playing the guitar, your finger dexterity and ability will slow. If you stop reading new and challenging books, your language and expression will narrow. If you stop focusing on anything for a long period of time, your attention will shrivel.

Of course, this isn't necessarily bad because the brain is an efficient organ. It'll ditch what is useless to focus on what is needed. Few people reading this, for example, will need to know how to navigate the stars. But the question is, and it's a question more important than ever with the integration of AI into everything, is: 'What brain processes are we willing to give up?'

Would you be okay with giving up the ability to search multiple sources, or to write a coherent email on your own? Are you willing to give up the ability to make art and to express your own views as you would like them? The issue isn't cognitive atrophy per se, because our cognition grows and atrophies according to our needs and to our wants.

The question is, actually, what we want to do with our brains. The question is what we want our inner life and experiences to feel like.