[fercircularbuf]

As the proliferation of the smart phone eroded our ability to locate and orient ourselves and remember routes to places. It's no surprise that a tool like this, used for the purpose of outsourcing a task that our own brains would otherwise do, would result in a decline in the skills that would be trained if we were performing that task ourselves.

[arethuza]

The only two times I have made bad navigation mistakes in mountains were in the weeks after I started using my phone and a mapping app - the realisation that using my phone was making me worse at navigation was quite a shock at the time.

[khazhoux]

But you didn't become worse at navigation. Sounds like you trusted a tool, and it failed you.

[khazhoux]

> As the proliferation of the smart phone eroded our ability to locate and orient ourselves and remember routes to places

Can you point to a study to back this up? Otherwise, it's anecdata.

[ineedaj0b]

i really tire of people always asking for studies for obvious things.

have sword skills declined since the introduction of guns? surely people still have hands and understand how to move swords, and they use knives to cut food for consumption. the skill level is the same..

but we know on aggregate most people have switched to relying on a technological advancement. there's not the same culture for swords as in the past by sheer numbers despite there being more self proclaimed 'experts'.

100 genz vs. 100 genx you'll likely find a smidgen more of one group than the other finding a location without a phone.

[fercircularbuf]

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027249442...

The first paragraph of the conclusions section is also stimulating and I think aptly applies to this discussion of using AI as a tool.

> it is important to mention the bidirectionality of the relationship between GPS use and navigation abilities: Individuals with poorer ability to learn spatial information and form environmental knowledge tend to use assisted navigation systems more frequently in daily life, thus weakening their navigation abilities. This intriguing link might suggest that individuals who have a weaker “internal” ability to use spatial knowledge to navigate their surroundings are also more prone to rely on “external” devices or systems to navigate successfully. Therefore, other psychological factors (e.g., self-efficacy; Miola et al., 2023) might moderate this bidirectional relationship, and researchers need to further elucidate it.

[tehnub]

Navigation is a narrow task. For many intents and purposes, LLMs are generally intelligent.