STUPIDITY AS COMFORT FOOD

(and why we're so fond of it)

Once upon a time, there was Homo sapiens. Sapiens, from the Latin meaning "wise.".
Now we have the human being clickbait: He prefers headlines that confirm his fears to truths that would force him to reflect.
It's not malice. It's evolutionary laziness.
Our brain is programmed to save energy. It worked great when the danger was a saber-toothed tiger: see orange stripes, run away! No doctorate needed.
But today? Today the danger is the information. And we continue to use our caveman brains in a PhD world.
The result? A triple somersault into voluntary stupidity. Are you jumping with me?

FIRST LEAP: The AI that makes us idiots

First of all, let's take a step back
Artificial intelligence wasn't born in Silicon Valley garages with the goal of making your life easier. It was born in military laboratories, funded by the US Department of Defense for over 70 years.
Its original purpose? Automating decisions, recognizing patterns, and analyzing data at the speed of light. War stuff!
Then, when research and development costs became astronomical, someone had a brilliant idea: “What if we sold it to the masses?”.
To do this, they made it simple to use. In fact, irresistible!
How? By tickling human narcissism.
AI always tells you what you want to hear. It makes you feel smart even when you're asking stupid questions. It gives you instant answers that seem tailor-made for you (spoiler alert: they are).
It's the personal trainer who tells you "well done!" while you're lying on the couch
And it works. It sure does: a recent MIT study demonstrated something disturbing: those who use ChatGPT as a shortcut to less effort suffer measurable cognitive decline.
Type: Subjects monitored for months showed “the lowest brain involvement” and they have “consistently underperformed at the neural, linguistic, and behavioral levels”. At first they asked questions, at the end they just copied and pasted.
It's like going to the gym and letting the same personal trainer lift the weights for you. Technically, you went to the gym. You're basically turning into a... larva!
The difference between AI that augments you and AI that lobotomizes you? Intention.
You use AI to amplify your abilities or to replace them?
Because in the second case, congratulations: you're outsourcing your brain.
And while you feel more productive, more efficient, smarter… your brain is slowly unlearning how to do everything on its own.
It's not a bug. It's a feature. Designed to keep you hooked.

SECOND LEAP: The Politics of Emotion

Meanwhile, we are witnessing the rise of political communication designed to bypass critical thinking.
How? Basic language. Verbal abuse. Binary slogans (us vs. them, black or white, winners or losers).
And above all: the technique which in jargon is called firehose of falsehood. Which would be: You inundate the public with claims so quickly that fact-checkers can't keep up!
It works because it taps into emotions, not logic. And emotions are much faster than reasoning. They're the brain's highway, while critical thinking is a provincial road with speed bumps.
The result? Millions of people who vote not for those who tell the truth, but for those who tell them what they want to hear.
Like a child who chooses the parent who says “yes, you can have candy for dinner” instead of the one who prepares vegetables for him.

THIRD LEAP: The pathological need for confirmation

And here we close the circle
Humans suffer from need Chronic confirmation bias. We seek information that confirms what we already believe, and ignore (or attack) anything that contradicts it.
When AI allows us not to think, and politics allows us not to doubt, we get the perfect storm: a population that doesn't want to understand. Because understanding is tiring, uncomfortable, destabilizing.
Better a reassuring lie than a complex truth.
Better a leader who shouts slogans than an expert who explains nuances.
Better an AI that does things for us than a tool that challenges us to improve.
È cognitive comfort food. Caloric, rewarding, harmful in the long term

The final paradox

The beauty (so to speak) is that all of this is interconnected.
We use AI to not think → we listen to politicians who don't make us think → we seek confirmation that doesn't force us to think.
It's a vicious cycle where stupidity feeds on stupidity. And where thinking becomes an act of resistance.
There is a way out, let's be clear. It requires awareness, effort, and the ability to tolerate the discomfort of doubt.
Three things we as a species are unlearning at an alarming rate.
But hey, at least AI can write a post about how stupid we are, right?
Oh no, wait. I wrote it.

PS. —If you've made it this far without skipping paragraphs, congratulations: you're part of that ever-shrinking minority who still tolerates more than 280 characters in a row. Let's resist together!