167. Is GPS Changing Your Brain?

No Stupid Questions

Freakonomics Radio + Stitcher

Society & Culture

4.6 • 3.6K Ratings

🗓️ 15 October 2023

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is it better to be an egocentric navigator or an allocentric navigator? Was the New York City Department of Education wrong to ban ChatGPT? And did Mike get ripped off by Michael Jackson’s cousin?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, it's Mike. We've just launched the Freakonomics Radio Plus membership program.
0:07.1	When you become a Freakonomics Radio Plus member, you'll get weekly, exclusive member-only
0:12.2	episodes of Freakonomics Radio. In addition, you won't hear any ads on Freakonomics Radio
0:17.4	or on the other shows in our network, including no stupid questions. To become a member of Freakonomics
0:23.4	Radio Plus, visit the No Stupid Questions page on Apple Podcasts or go to Freakonomics.com
0:29.1	Slash Plus. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, go back to Michael Jackson's cousin.
0:35.9	I'm Angela Duckworth. I'm Mike Mon. And you're listening to No Stupid Questions.
0:41.8	Today on the show, is GPS technology changing your brain? When people give me directions,
0:48.2	they're like, and then go three blocks and then you'll turn east. And I'm like, as if I know what
0:52.1	east is. Angela, do you ever stop to think what it would be like to live in another age?
1:09.1	Like maybe the Renaissance in Italy or the Roman Empire or the Wild West? No. That is such an
1:17.6	interesting question. I probably should stop to think about what it would be like to teleport to
1:22.1	another era in history. Well, here's the thing. I don't actually think about that much either,
1:26.5	but I just want to be clear that I'm 100% confident that basically in any other time, I would not
1:33.2	have survived. So I have glasses. I can't see well without them. I have health issues that require
1:38.9	modern medicine. But to top it all off, I have literally like no geographic intelligence. What?
1:45.0	Did I know this about you? Yes. I can get lost in my own neighborhood and never find my way home.
1:49.6	When I first moved to Boston, I decided to go for a run without my phone. And I figured out where to
1:56.5	run and how to get back. But I ended up miles away from where I thought I was. And I stopped to
2:02.2	ask someone for direction, told him where I lived and just asked him if he could point me how to
2:06.7	get home. And he just looked at me and was like, uh, that's really far away. And I was like,
2:13.1	right, I don't have a phone. I don't have a wallet. I have two legs. And that's how I'm going to
	...

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