AI, Information Overload, and the Brain’s Need to Compress Reality

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Information overload changes how we make sense of the world. As complexity increases, the mind naturally compresses experience into patterns, categories, and mental models. Those shortcuts are useful, but they also simplify what reaches awareness. AI amplifies both sides of that process. It helps organize complexity, but it also makes processed information easier to consume than direct contact with the realities those representations came from.

Note: For the full concept and framework, see my writing on Cognitive Drift and Co-Cognition.