Does relying on technology stop us using our brains?

That got my attention. I clicked and got this (London) Times article that quotes Leeds University Professor Martin Conway:

“You're asking the wrong question,” says Professor Martin Conway, of the University of Leeds, a psychologist and expert on memory. “The reverse is entirely the case: technology reduces the burden on memory and increases our ability to make use of our minds. It is enabling rather than disabling.”

Sherlock Holmes once astonished Dr Watson by admitting that he didn’t know the name of the President of the United States. When Watson told him, Holmes said he would now do his best to forget it again; he believed that the brain had limited capacity and wanted to reserve his memory for more relevant things, such as knowing the difference between 50 different kinds of cigarette ash — vital stuff for the great detective.

Holmes was wrong; we use only a fraction of our capacity to remember. And because the act of memorising induces additional production of the neurotransmitters that lay down routes in the brain in which memories consist, it is likely that the more you memorise, the more you can memorise.

Haruchika Noguchi became a nationally famous healer, but when he was young he suffered an illness that weakened his vocal chords. He firmly believed that the more you use a part of your body, the stronger it gets, so he deliberately eschewed mechanical aids and sought out opportunities for speaking to large groups of people. By the time he reached adulthood, he had fully recovered the use of his voice.