By Richard Martin, Chief Strategist, Alcera Consulting Inc.
In recent weeks, headlines have warned that tools like ChatGPT may be dulling our minds, weakening memory, and eroding our capacity for critical thought. A widely circulated Time article spotlighted a new preprint by MIT researchers claiming that use of large language models (LLMs) correlates with reduced brain activity, impaired recall, and less original writing. But such conclusions jump the gun by claiming scientific credibility for rhetorical and ideological purposes.
The study in question is a preprint, issued prior to peer review, based on a small sample of 54 participants, and relies on EEG scans, a tool useful for detecting surface-level neural patterns, but too coarse to support claims about thinking, reasoning, or understanding. No standardized tests of logic, analysis, or metacognition were administered. The essay task was narrow and time limited. Yet the findings have been framed as proof that LLMs erode “critical thinking”—a sweeping conclusion not borne out by the study’s actual design or data.
This pattern is familiar. When I was a youth in the 1970s, television was said to rot the brain and damage the eyes. In the 1980s, rock lyrics and video games were blamed for youth violence. Cell phones, microwave ovens, and even electricity itself have all, at different times, triggered public fears and prompted dire scientific warnings. These episodes almost always begin with early studies—suggestive but inconclusive—followed by exaggerated headlines and moral commentary that quickly outpace the evidence.
This is not just a modern phenomenon. Even in antiquity, technology inspired anxiety. In Plato’s Phaedrus, Socrates warns that writing “will produce forgetfulness in the souls of those who learn it,” because people will rely on external symbols rather than internal memory. He privileges spoken dialogue as the true path to understanding. Yet it is only through Plato’s writing that we know Socrates said any of this. His claim certainly had substance, but it was incomplete. Writing changed the structure of thought, yes, but it also enabled the development of philosophy, science, and law.
We’ve adapted before. The 20th century saw steady increases in abstract reasoning and symbolic thought, a trend documented by psychologist James Flynn and now known as the Flynn Effect. IQ scores rose decade after decade, likely due to the intellectual demands of education, media, and professional work. Our minds evolved in tandem with our tools.
Today’s LLMs may well change how we think. They may shift the balance from composition to synthesis, from invention to revision. But that is not the same as cognitive decline. It is simply a change in cognitive economy; how effort is allocated, how meaning is produced. Whether that change proves beneficial or harmful will depend on how these tools are used, by whom, and for what ends.
What’s needed now is not alarmism, but inquiry. It is too early to know what these systems will do to our minds, and far too early to treat early signals as scientific verdicts. If history teaches us anything, it’s that humans adapt, not passively, but actively, often creatively. We don’t just receive technology. We negotiate with it, repurpose it, and build new habits around it. The story of LLMs and the mind has only just begun—and it deserves to be told without panic.
About the Author
Richard Martin is the founder and president of Alcera Consulting Inc., and the creator of The Strategic Code—a doctrine for leaders navigating volatility, constraint, and conflict.
His mission is simple: equip leaders to exploit change and achieve strategic coherence. Through his advisory work, writing, and tools, he helps senior decision-makers see clearly, understand deeply, and act decisively in high-stakes environments.
Richard is the author of Brilliant Manoeuvres: How to Use Military Wisdom to Win Business Battles, and the developer of Strategic Epistemology and Worldview Warfare—frameworks that decode the beliefs, values, and power structures shaping strategic action in a contested world.
www.thestrategiccode.com
www.exploitingchange.com
© 2025 Richard Martin
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