Time magazine last week had an article about storing information on the cloud, and noted a recent study showed that people who enter data into a system where they can easily access it have a tendency to
remember it far less well than those who know it might be deleted. They also noted people look things up regularly, and don't try to remember things.

The week before I had quipped, after passing several cars with GPS devices on the dash that we were raising a generation that can't spell (spellcheck), don't know how to add (calculators and spreadsheets) and can't even find where they are going.

I felt smug for a little while.... except I haven't balanced my checkbook (or really needed to) in over a decade. And if I'm not sure how to spell a word, I too stuff in a guess, and let spell check fix it, and I'll use mapquest to confirm an exit number, where I used to just go and make myself remember whether it looked right.

Do we all get lazy mentally, when tools are easily available for these kinds of things? Most of you are smarter than I am. Do you let the tech take care of the messy details, too?

Oh absolutely. Tech makes us dumb and dependent. But I'm not giving it up.

The solution is simple, net accesses for our brains. It beats eating a calculator in the hopes of gaining it’s power.

I think I come in somewhere in the middle. Most phone numbers I let my phone remember, but the most important I try to have memorized, because the situation has arisen where I needed those numbers and wasn't near my own phone.

GPS? Absolutely, but also as a tool to memorize and learn a new area for myself. Once I know a route, my GPS is usually just on map, instead of directions... I am a child of Nintendo, and I appreciate a mini-map!

It seems to me that any evolving tech serves to free up our time and brain energy for other pursuits. Now if we could just stop filling that time with Angry Birds and existential whining, we might get somewhere.

I agree with Steph 100%. I can't do basic arithmetic, my spelling is horrible and I can't find my way around with my GPS....but I could design and implement each of those devices. I suppose my work's motto of Sense and Simplicity should really be Proving Simplicity for the Senseless.

... I love angry birds...

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Ha, I am fortunate in that with the way my brain works, I do have impeccable spelling and grammar (part of my job), I can do mental math, and I can navigate without a GPS... but why bother? A GPS makes things easier, a spellcheck catches me when I'm typing faster than my hands can quite manage, and a calculator saves precious seconds. Meaning more time for ridiculous pastimes.

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords. And I can't wait to join brain-in-a-jar club.