“We have fallen into habits that are steadily deskilling the human body,” writes Melanie Challenger. “This is a strange turn of events for an animal whose success comes mostly from the extraordinary ability to learn through experience.” For Aeon, Challenger explores how modern technologies, from GPS to AI, are eroding our body’s physical skills by replacing the embodied experiences through which we learn.
After all, the brain is itself a physical organ, continually shaped by what the body does and encounters. Once we decide that the mind is the real human and the rest of the body only hardware, it becomes easier to disregard the physical work, including the neurocognitive work of a biological brain, through which we move, find our way, put thoughts into words, and recognise our own needs. A machine may do some of that work faster, but each act it takes over is one that the body no longer performs and that the body, including the brain, no longer learns through. The irony is that a project motivated by the desire to overcome bodily fragility is helping to produce more fragile bodies.
More writing at Aeon
Toadstools and Toxins
“When I found the mushroom Amanita muscaria being sold in candy wrappers, I uncovered legal loopholes, dangerous dosages and more.”
More Nothing Now
“We are most human when we play freely, imaginatively, pointlessly. Gamification risks atrophying that most precious capacity.”
Dolphins and Other Lovers
“The Andoque of the Amazon know what we have forgotten: the forest’s most beautiful creatures are also its most dangerous.”
Worm Munch Matters
“The lives that slither and scurry beneath the soil’s surface are vital for ecological health: now we can listen in to them.”
Beyond Greece and Rome
“A dramatic shift in perspective is producing a much bigger, broader and more exciting view of ‘the ancient world.’”
The Looting of Science Fiction
“Tech titans claim the genre inspired them. But all they’ve done is graft their politics onto stories of a better future.”
