Generative AI can feel like a superpower. Along with an efficiency boost, the sheer range of help it offers, from recipes to relationship advice, is tantalizing. But there are hidden risks. AI can make things so easy that we start outsourcing attention, memory, and confidence. We rely less on our judgment, reasoning, and self-soothing when faced with a problem. I noticed this tendency in myself when I began prompting ChatGPT for possible explanations and advice for a dental problem,
Quantum mechanics pushed science into domains where reality isn't limited to familiar dimensions. In that world, two states can both be completely real yet share zero overlap. Physicists call this orthogonality. It's not a metaphor, but a more formal condition of what I call "cognitive geometry." And I've come to believe this may be an accurate way to understand the relationship between human cognition and artificial intelligence.