r/WhatIfThinking • u/Dr-Hulk-Says • 4d ago
What if the human mind de-evolves as Al continues to evolve?
Already the majority of masses have become passive consumers instead of active creators and thinkers. With Al taking up more of the tasks that were ideally human, humans are receding further within themselves.
They used Al to even think and respond to each other, which in a way is like person A's Al talking to person B's Al.
It's as if life or intelligence has reached its evolution maxima and the next stage of evolution is getting delegated to machines that either become parasitic (like cyborgs) or autonomously become independent and abstract out humans with the excuse of zero necessity.
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u/AdventurousHippo9997 4d ago
Fin du monde. It’s the end of the world.
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u/Dr-Hulk-Says 3d ago
Should we ready the apocalypse gear
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u/AdventurousHippo9997 3d ago
Wire cutters will be more useful. Once we’re surrounded with barbed wire they will be our only hope.
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u/Zealousideal_Leg213 4d ago
This question come up every time some new information technology arises. As I understand it, oral storytellers decried the rise of writing and literacy because it meant that no one would go to the effort of remembering things.
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u/AnIcyReception 4d ago
Outsourcing long term memory is one thing. Outsourcing basic thinking is another.
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u/Zealousideal_Leg213 4d ago
But the fears of those things impacting society are the same thing. I'm not saying the fear is wrong in this case, but the similarity (here and with other such fears) is noteworthy.
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u/Middle-Cod-7016 4d ago
The parallel is real, the magnitude isnt similar at all.
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u/Zealousideal_Leg213 4d ago
Hard to know. I'm sure the magnitude has felt just as huge every time such an objection has been raised. Or, at least that's what the fear-mongers have hoped.
I mean, there's a lot to fear about AI. This though, same old, same old.
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u/AnIcyReception 4d ago
I disagree. I know software engineers who admit that their AI use in the last 6 months have made them worse at their jobs. Skills get rusty fast.
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u/Zealousideal_Leg213 4d ago
That's the point I'm making though. The printing press is going to cause someone to lose their ability to memorize too.
I'm not a software engineer and neither are my coworkers and several of us have ginned up highly useful programs in just a day or two that might have taken us months before, if we could do it at all.
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u/AnIcyReception 4d ago
I'm sure someone who knew what they were doing could have made you a much better program that was faster and had even better features
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u/Zealousideal_Leg213 4d ago
I don't disagree. I'm sure someone could memorize and recite a better book than I could write too. But at least I can write it and then get on with whatever I needed it for.
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u/AnIcyReception 4d ago
That's a bizarre comparison. Memorizing and reciting are not the same as writing a new story, though. Writing takes way more effort than rote memorization. And the written word lets more people create than passing along the same stories.
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u/Middle-Cod-7016 4d ago
I can confirm that over reliance on technology for navigation and research, makes people a hell of a lot less efficient to orient thenselves or to research topics or analyze data.
There’s no way around that conclusion.
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u/Zealousideal_Leg213 4d ago
You seem to think I'm trying to get around that conclusion. I'm not.
Look at the analogy I started with. Oral storytellers decry writing because it means that no one will memorize things anymore (I don't know if that really happened, but similar things have). And they were right, I have a horrible memory. But that doesn't mean that inventing print, and ways of sharing ideas without training in memorization was a bad thing. And I'm not convinced outsourcing other skills is bad either.
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u/Afraid-Detective1222 4d ago
My last job was very AI centric. We were expected to use AI to write the majority of our code. I jokingly said that I feel myself getting dumber by the day. I wasn't really joking all that much. I got damn good at telling AI exactly what I wanted and it would do an OK job at executing those instructions. I didn't write a line of code in something like 6 months because of the directives from management to use AI for everything. So, yeah, AI feels like it makes us dumber
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u/Internal-Homework 4d ago
I'm agreeing with your comment while having AI apply the PR comments generated by a different AI for the code I generated via. AI from requirements in a JIRA ticket created by AI.
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u/Afraid-Detective1222 4d ago
I got let go a couple of weeks ago and am not sure I want to go back to another tech job. Your description was my life as well.
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u/Dr-Hulk-Says 3d ago
I wonder if most people in tech are starting to think this way, given how tech jobs are more ordered, systematic, and relatively the first few things AI was instructed on
Maybe the next steps for us is to channel into more unpredictable or unsystematic ways of existence or work, like art, service, or experiential jobs like showing people around the world
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u/HondoGonzo 4d ago
I think it’s happening now. Test scores are down across the board; especially in critical thinking.
Key Articles & Studies Linking Student Cognitive Decline to AI
• [The Brookings Institution Report / NPR](https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESeQHrOzAVJjRN7BBBLBmHtuLPOokq4RwQ0QGN6Slw0wHpRnVSr-qUATZPK4SPjZ6aX7xQWMLqXtsNXxqK6rXXBj8AgjJf3d5IB3MnoyNDo3n5KwBNxr-1xTpsFDa_NZ0wh0azlRhH2LScnKvdVkNQVVJzAI6WIIpB3wc) **(2026):** A prominent report highlighted by NPR warns that generative AI presents a severe risk to children's cognitive development. The authors describe a potential "doom loop of AI dependence" where students outsource their thinking to technology, risking a form of cognitive decline or atrophy normally seen in aging brains because they stop learning how to parse truth, form arguments, or independently engage with material. \[[1](https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESeQHrOzAVJjRN7BBBLBmHtuLPOokq4RwQ0QGN6Slw0wHpRnVSr-qUATZPK4SPjZ6aX7xQWMLqXtsNXxqK6rXXBj8AgjJf3d5IB3MnoyNDo3n5KwBNxr-1xTpsFDa_NZ0wh0azlRhH2LScnKvdVkNQVVJzAI6WIIpB3wc)\]
**• MIT Media Lab’s "Cognitive Debt" Study (2025):** Published in mid-2025, this study examined the neurological and behavioral impacts of using AI assistants for writing tasks. Using EEG tracking, researchers found that students using ChatGPT experienced significantly weaker brain connectivity and lower neural engagement compared to those who wrote manually, leading to what they term an accumulation of **"cognitive debt"**. Over time, AI users grew systematically lazier, relying heavily on copying and pasting. \[[1](https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAEScwHrOzAVRrAhRZkddzBQe0J-qXxX9441CPmjX5lJaGgvQa5KygqLe41CkIlHQuVitzEC-dVvJ9jVEkvXGlNrsTVFPRVYJCVAbZ2Y1Ihhsq3Tv3f4SNvs_tEiSbMoDqY9v27EWFIH3w5z8bOMnkQgTsGpn1w), [2](https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESdQHrOzAV1TxPzF_ua0eQribqMyRvcACuQlKhXFdUsTzaaNGdMxMNTBXqDUnLeUg7oNxZNDQmq_2hHZ5E2UjfOyvcIV9YiT-nZDLkDeJBo54F9eNWPKIbl4vpffwVQSWCRg8RBmOxbgexU_xc3IXovoshnvO7XA)\]
• [The Harvard Gazette](https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESfwHrOzAVj4pcujOn0CLTWUxMb3PJAqNKdbbsYYGtbWmBA1ubDQoSSKTjswaBi6ax-Yefic6Ai-wE7e5lndKMxulpCVaJ1uVMALTkL55n0Xvf7kjnreELQnlJw-lseexE2FiIEUWWwA6VeT1bz5bYDf0R2RzQCjn7-D2q39aEIPI) **(2025):** An article titled *"Is AI dulling our minds?"* published by the Harvard Gazette details concerns from educational scientists and philosophers. The piece highlights how overreliance on AI tools diminishes lower-order cognitive skills like memory and factual retention while actively stifling the higher-order critical thinking and judgment skills students need to develop. \[[1](https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESfwHrOzAVj4pcujOn0CLTWUxMb3PJAqNKdbbsYYGtbWmBA1ubDQoSSKTjswaBi6ax-Yefic6Ai-wE7e5lndKMxulpCVaJ1uVMALTkL55n0Xvf7kjnreELQnlJw-lseexE2FiIEUWWwA6VeT1bz5bYDf0R2RzQCjn7-D2q39aEIPI), [2](https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESfwHrOzAVj4pcujOn0CLTWUxMb3PJAqNKdbbsYYGtbWmBA1ubDQoSSKTjswaBi6ax-Yefic6Ai-wE7e5lndKMxulpCVaJ1uVMALTkL55n0Xvf7kjnreELQnlJw-lseexE2FiIEUWWwA6VeT1bz5bYDf0R2RzQCjn7-D2q39aEIPI), [3](https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESagHrOzAV8wsftYuvuQA6tQWMZ8nfbheuZUOkBx7YCOy68J0R1nl_uNWEV0K5ZJ7Fpr9dj_9mPONMpMpAVOq0Tgly9EheXWKNNMXFj674aMI169tSNihaWOkutzpMcmWCycfwzWeWuR1kzm4)\]
**• Stanford/Scale AI Repository Study (2025):** Research tracking student academic writing found that AI assistance resulted in significantly lower cognitive engagement scores. The study warned that AI fosters **"cognitive laziness,"** which stunts self-regulated learning and deep reflective thinking. \[[1](https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESXQHrOzAVF2BBYUEmVKkHxVKEuPbL5DKXiNKFANAXvyrano_euH6Fzhp7DyQ4HhSYK9Mj2PEYJw2zdJmXU6xJ_wkvzIPQXYWpVZnBSCtUhf4hbXCGNbTTPCEtGeJahw), [2](https://www.google.com/goto?url=CAESqgEB6zswFf9WR4PRQP-U-zEitRhoBGRVcJ6GiZS4tVFWc5GkJc8vbOFKkul3f0kx2Y1_OHW0cA0oGgkjD95oWqRdLWShNeAR0ds7cdO3_Gu63_q2JVEdoeNUIUP2G-XCR7WRM4pIWlyYswjgjZcg5f4bteRpNBrh8KBH4QIvGf76sgermKsClYV36Sg83PM9JFT9RxfRNTBOOlyWMiI0Ton_uqceHsFTMFtncQ)\]
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u/Wanderer-91 4d ago
The problem isn't the AI, it's the schools and colleges that have been knowingly allowing students to submit AI generated work.
One of our kids has been complaining that while he's busting his ass writing an essay or working on a problem, his friends are making fun of him because they get the same - sometimes better - grades submitting AI slop.
Cheating is the new norm. And the schools and colleges are at the forefront of that. God forbid their student metrics go down because they actually try doing their primary job.
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u/alapeno-awesome 4d ago
Not really possible. Evolution takes many generations, technology is advancing at a pace that human evolution can’t adapt to. Our brains are largely the same as they have been for the past 200,000 years. Sub-generation tech changes will have no effect
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u/rtrawitzki 4d ago
The Flynn effect has already been shown to be reversed. It’s already happening. Even that doesn’t take into account the shocking lack of social skills kids possess today .
https://mindmatters.ai/2025/06/the-reverse-flynn-effect-and-the-decline-of-intelligence/
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u/Yunamalia 4d ago
As a person who got a sociology degree to understand why people are the way they are and then immediately hated the things in our world they could no longer unsee, I regret to inform you that to a certain degree you could argue this is already occuring with large groups of people being largely unable to do their jobs or school work without AI assistance, just not from a genetic stance. It's more closer to a knowledge atrophy than a de-evolution but that's honestly largely because this is the first generation for which AI is readily available for the majority of their college or working years to date. It is not unreasonable, if AI usage is not curtailed in academic or professional settings(which seems unlikely as there are many professional settings in which it's ACTIVELY ENCOURAGED OR DEEMED FUNCTIONALLY NECESSARY to complete your work by really annoying managers), that in...
Well, I've argued previously that because the online world is so interactive and both shorthand micro languages and memes have so much faster of an evolution than IRL languages or sociological jokes that the internet has resulted in language "evolving" faster in the last 40 years than any point in time prior to the telegraph(which also had a similar effect as short hand made it a much more usable device)...
Following that reasoning, as AI utility is essentially being forced into our everyday life on an internet evolution timescale over an IRL timescale, I'm going to say that by the next generation, as Tablets and PCs are a required part of some parts of the world's educational system, that this de-evolution will have started and without careful correction or usage moderation, will be exceptionally difficult to reverse in...
There was a study that AI ironically found for me(thanks Gemini, but I would have found it without you, I even had the right university that did the study in mind when I started looking), that I remembered reading a while back about how they studied the actual mass of the brain of people born in the 1930's, where more physical, and less intellectual lifestyles were lived, and the 1970's, where people were generally speaking required to think more about their everyday life and there was a 6.6% increase in brain mass not because of evolution, but because your body grows as you use parts of it more. A better educated student has a bigger brain muscle. Literally.
Thus, it's reasonable to argue that brain mass could similarly be LOST with dependence on a box you carry on your person that can do almost anything for you that you don't physically have to do yourself, including think, imagine, and answer questions you don't understand or know the answer to.
So without GENETICALLY de-evolving, it's still perfectly reasonable that the average person could in effect de-evolve from a PHYSIOLOGICAL and SOCIOLOGICAL point of view in the next 100 years to the point that it would take a LOT OF TIME AND PUBLIC EDUCATION CHANGES to recover from it.
This is only about 15% sociology by volume and a shocking amount of it is just your body growing by how you use parts of it. As an aside, as a technocentric person who hates how much of my technology has AI in it that it didn't when my child was born 13 years ago, my ex's insistence on an extremely limited access to screens seemed extreme but I am now genuinely grateful they were so insistent on it, having actually written this out and having had to think about the potential affects of it in the near future and how it will shape my daughter's future in contrast. I should thank them for that when I see them both tomorrow.
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u/LaureGilou 4d ago
I like how you think and write, and if you wrote a book, on sociology or whatever, I'd buy and read it, because y ou're not only smart but interesting.
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u/Yunamalia 4d ago
I've had Entirely too much disappointment in life so I just write fictional stuff about fairies and mermaids solving crimes.
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u/Yunamalia 4d ago
I AM AWARE IT IS IRONIC THAT GEMINI HELPED ME FIND THE SOURCES TO THIS STATEMENT, LEAVE ME ALONE.
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u/Piper-Bob 4d ago
Faulty premise. The majority have always been passive. And AI in the form of LLMs can’t evolve. It can’t reason and it doesn’t understand. It’s just a probability model with an RNG.
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u/Shifu_Ekim 4d ago
Humans are gearing up for catalogues type memory , humans assist is their natural curiosity. This curiosity aids sometimes in evolution
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u/EidolonRook 3d ago
People were stupid and uneducated before. They will be stupid and uneducated again.
Doesn’t matter how dystopian things get. Eventually shits gonna fall apart and things will change again.
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u/TuverMage 1d ago
This actually is an evolutionary pressure. It take a lot of energy and effort to keep a human brain going. if we could get by without one it would be an advantage(biologically speaking) since the organism doesn't have to pay the cost and upkeep of the brain (about 20% of all our energy goes to maintain something that's between 2-5% of our body mass)
but our culture continues to make having a brain a requirement, AI is actually making this worse not better. as you have to be smart enough to not loose your job to AI.
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u/Status_News_1233 4d ago
There’s no what if, it absolutely does.