Remember when you had to do trigonometry problems using a table of values for sine and cosine? Or when you had to do statistical algorithms using punch cards? Or simple math using the abacus? Neither do I. But as much as I was glad to have my trusty TI 83 next to me during high school math, it turns out that doing things in your head instead of on a screen makes you less stupid.

A BBC piece from earlier this month explored how easy-to-use software like Google is dulling the edges of our brains. The chosen example is the brains of London taxi drivers–infamous for “The Knowledge”–the intimately familiarity with London’s streets which is a prerequisite for the job:

But with satellite-navigation technology now well established as a cheap, reliable way of being shown the way ahead, one expert has warned that we could actually lose the intellectual capacity to remember vast amounts of information – such as tricky routes through the capital city.

“The particular part of our brain that stores mental images of space is actually quite enlarged in London cab drivers,” explained Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.

“The longer you’ve been a cab driver the larger that part of your brain is.”

Mr Carr explained to Gareth Mitchell on BBC World Service’s Digital Planet that one study revealed concerns over technology use for cabbies.

“Almost certainly we’ll see a diminishment, or even an eradication, of that special quality of their brains.”

Photo: Flickr/ mroach