Do you remember?

Do you still remember your old landline number? Or do you still remember all the phone numbers of your near and dear ones? Or do you remember all your past house addresses? If not, have you at least noticed the gradual decline in your memory? Recently, I participated in a fun cognitive(thinking or understanding) abilities quiz to answer the questions in seconds. The first few questions were easy, What is your name? What is your birthday month? Which city do you stay in? What is today's date? etc. Further along, even simple questions felt challenging to answer within seconds. Questions like, Who was the previous Prime Minister? Count backwards from 100? Simple maths problems? etc. The results were fair enough given that I took more time on a few of them. It showed scores based on memory, focus, and attention span. All these, I learnt, form the basis of our cognitive abilities.

In the past, I had read of these abilities and ways to gauge them. We took similar trainings at work to further enhance our thinking abilities. However, I hadn't come across these of late and didn't notice the decline, which is normal. I also found that these abilities are now declining faster among adults and even in kids, post-COVID. It is now a common and accepted fact that we spend most of our time staring (looking) at screens. We have now adopted and evolved our lifestyle around the digital age. We now live in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) age. AI, which was just a laboratory experiment a few decades ago, is now central to our lifestyle without most of us noticing it.

A few years ago, I was of the impression that we needed technology to enhance our financial transactions, business processes, and healthcare, in general, help people live comfortably. What was striking was that technology implementation was accelerating in other sectors, such as retail, entertainment, and news & media. We now have tools and technology in the hands of common people. It is good in a way, but it also creates challenges for governance and ethical use. The sheer volume of data and daily use of these sectors is skyrocketing. We, collectively, now spend more time on our screens, even if it might be helping us in our day-to-day lives.

Not long ago, I read a book - 'Stolen Focus by Johann Hari. It states in great detail about our collapsing abilities to pay attention. It grabbed my attention to such an extent that I dreaded touching my mobile for hours. I am already averse (dislike or oppose) to gadgets around me. Every time I checked my mobile after reading a few pages, it felt like holding a bomb in my hand, ready to explode. This book shook all my senses of focus and attention. The author talks at length about our evolution and the impacts of various technologies from the past to the present and future on our core abilities. Most of the modern tools, including AI, are making us zombies. Our attention span is now reduced to three minutes of short videos (Shorts). Anything more and we look to skip, cut, or switch. Even a small conversation with our neighbours over the fence feels hard.

After reading the book, I learnt that my forgetting birthdays or historic dates or minor other details is not entirely my fault. I realized that since I had access to such gadgets and the latest technology, I offloaded that part of my memory onto a device managed by Silicon Valley giants. If there were no easy access to such devices, I would have retained this memory and attention in a much sharper way. Even today, so many people can focus, pay attention to details, and hold conversations for long without the use of any technology. However, this number is on the decline. It is scary that the new generations are now born with gadgets in front of their eyes, even before they learn to call it a screen or a gadget. Their attention span is even less than our younger selves, and we can't even blame them!

We, collectively, have to also think about how the growing AI and devices are controlled by just a handful of corporations. We trust them to protect us from any harm. I know at the individual level, we can do our best to be vigilant to reduce the use, but that is not enough. We need the government, corporations, and society to take strong and focused actions to save us from the ongoing damage and future harm of the use of AI. Before, we outsource our entire brain to a computer to guide us on what, when, and how we should live! Even if you don't remember anything, please remember to check on yourself from time to time!