Internet and AI: affecting human memory (Nature.com)

Are the Internet and AI affecting our memory? What the science says

I have recognized this myself. As I use GPS on my app to find the most efficient way across town, even for familiar locations, I find that my memory “offloads” the specifics and I may have a harder time finding these locations if/when GPS is down.

Is this bad?

We know from brain architecture, that this is the natural state of things. In “How to create a mind” Kurzweil describes the 6 layers of neurons in our cerebral cortex. For example, the first layer of neurons detects “pixels” or dots. The second layer assembles these dots into “lines or edges”. The third layer recognizes shapes based on lines “tiger!” The fourth recognizes “that tiger does not appear threatening right now.” The fifth level recognizes “hey, that’s my pet tiger Timmy”. The six level might even know how Timmy is feeling today.

We also know, that due to constant feedback in our neurons, we tend to push knowledge and computation down a layer when we can. That is, in the beginning, our top level neurons may only recognize TIGER, and only after we work with this tiger for some time, we give him/her a name and then the top level gets more sophisticated, and lower level neurons accept and recognize patterns from higher level neurons.

Similarly, I conceive that memory must work in a similar way. If we can push memory to a simpler level of neurons, then we can use the top level for more sophisticated computation or thinking. Perhaps the lowest level of neuron is outsourcing its memories to the internet, and we only remember “this is where and how we find that information.”

So interesting. Maybe in the chase for more sophisticated thinking, losing our memories to the internet (presuming, that web page will always be there!) is not so bad.

Maybe similar losses in cognition, like the concern about automation complacency (my previous blog), is also not so bad, if we can convince our minds to pursue more sophistication, instead of getting lazy.