A very famous study on London taxi drivers showed that the region of their brain responsible for memory (called the Hippocampus) actually increased in physical size as they underwent the intense multi-year training for the London cab driver exam.

All the years of creating spacial maps and developing new cognitive pathways while strengthening specifics synapses in their brains- which were all necessary to carry out the function of driving through the confusing and often changing streets of London- improved a specific dimension of their cognitive function.

I’m not saying we are degrading some dimension of our brain capacity with the engagement of the reliance economy but I’m guessing that we probably are changing our brain in some way.

Maybe it’s a positive tradeoff, smaller Hippocampus larger something else… but m maybe not.