The Automation Paradox

But depending on technology incurs a high cost. Every time we use it, we outsource to machines what we could and can do ourselves. The more we use GPS, for example, the more parts of our brain responsible for navigation and memory shrink. And the less we know our neighborhood. This is known as the automation paradox: the skills you automate, you lose. So the more we depend on machines to think for us, the less good we become at thinking for ourselves. The fewer decisions we make, the less good we become at making them. We risk falling into a trap: more need for certainty, more dependence on technology, less skill, more need. We become addicted to the very source of our anxiety.

- Margaret Heffernan in Uncharted: How to Navigate the Future