"This isn't a metaphor. Herbert Simon's work describes problem-solving as "search through a problem-space." Neuroscience has also shown that the same neural systems(the hippocampus, place, and grid cells) support both physical and conceptual navigation. What makes something navigation isn't whether it moves through a physical space, but rather that it requires relational mapping, position assessment, route planning, and dynamic reorganization."
"Just as GPS use causes a measurable decline in our spatial memory, AI tools that navigate conceptual spaces for us pose the same risk in a different, arguably more critical, domain. The Pharmakon and the problem with frictionless Looking at technological innovations through the lens of - both remedy and poison - remedies are clearly visible: speed, efficiency, productivity, convenience."
"The poisons are more subtle: dependency, agency, losing the cognitive friction that maintains our capacity to navigate. The agent absorbs the cost of navigation, but it also becomes the locus of agency. Two risks that stand out, and are worth thinking about: The transfer of agency: By shifting the agency of navigation to the software, you end up being at the mercy of the navigator."
Problem-solving functions as navigation through problem-spaces, and the hippocampus and place/grid cells support both physical and conceptual navigation. Navigation requires relational mapping, position assessment, route planning, and dynamic reorganization, so humans navigate constantly. Technology is making navigation easier, producing benefits like speed, efficiency, productivity, and convenience. Excessive removal of cognitive friction creates subtle harms such as dependency and loss of agency when software assumes navigation. AI tools that navigate conceptual spaces can measurably degrade capacities analogous to GPS effects on spatial memory. Two central risks are transfer of agency to software—turning information architecture into choice architecture—and a vacuum of attention when people lose meaningful tasks.
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