Member-only story
MEMORIZING CAN MEASURE OUR LOSS LEVELS
Quick. What is 36 divided by 9?
I stared at the Duolingo math problem for about 30 (!) seconds. I was so appalled that I could not remember the answer that I almost asked Siri, “What is 36 divided by 9?”
I held off long enough to ask myself what other numbers are divisible evenly by nine. I started the times tables in my head and confidently understood that adding nine to whatever numbers I had found there would result in the correct answer. The silly old multiplication tables saved me.
WHY IS THIS A BIG DEAL?????
It’s easy enough these days to ask Siri (or ChatGPT or any of our friendly second brains) what the answer is.
THAT. IS. NOT. THE. POINT. The point is that momentary losses of things we always knew we knew are downright scary, and the facile temptation to ask the friendly second brains is only making us more reliant on them for everything. And then they take over. Ask Isaac Asimov. He knew all about this when he wrote I, Robot, in 1950.
AGING, FADING, or CROWDING OUT?
Here’s the thing. I might feel as I age that my brain is aging, slowing, and muddying, but I also am aware that the firehose of information we face crowds out the basics. No one really needs to know that (spoiler alert) 36 divided by 9=4. What they need…
