Mental Muscles Also Atrophy: Are You Ready for Brain Training?

Primitive humans had to find food and survive every day. For this, they relied on their muscles and brains—in other words, the natural bodies they were endowed with. Survival at the time meant being able to run fast, climb, hunt, defend, and make instant decisions while doing all of these.

Brain Sport

Over time, humankind began to use animals as mounts, then to carry loads with them. They learned to benefit from animals to defend themselves, move faster, and hunt. This marked an important turning point where humans not only observed nature but began to shape it. Whereas humans once had to wrestle with animals if necessary, they later developed sharp and piercing tools, producing weapons to subdue prey without physical struggle. Thus, instead of muscle power, the ability to think and plan came to the fore.

This developmental trajectory was not limited to hunting. With the agricultural revolution, humanity elevated its power to transform nature. They began to cultivate the land, track the seasons, and create permanent settlements for production. In this process, humans still used their muscles, but not just their own anymore—animals’ strength and simple machines were also involved. The human body evolved from being merely a tool of resistance against nature to a tool that could guide and direct it.

In conflicts, people started to use projectiles like arrows and spears instead of direct hand-to-hand combat. With the invention of gunpowder, it became possible to be effective from a distance. This made mental abilities like calmness, focus, attention, and strategic thinking more valuable than brute strength.

The core transformation across all this history is striking: humans began using their muscles less and their minds more. Physical strength gave way to intellectual power. With the advancement of science and technology, this became even more evident. During the industrial revolution, machines replaced muscle power, while computers and software began to take over some cognitive tasks. Today, we've reached a point where we can accomplish many tasks without using any muscle power—sometimes without even leaving our seats.

Behind this transformation lies not only individual intelligence but also human social skills. Because it wasn’t the brain thinking alone that drove development, but the many brains thinking together. One of the greatest strengths of human intelligence was the ability to communicate through voice and signs, enabling cooperation, knowledge sharing, and efficient organization. This was one of the most powerful leaps that set humans apart from all other species.

Here we reach one of the most important milestones in the history of this essay: the invention of writing. Writing allowed humans to preserve what they had learned beyond the span of their own lifetimes and pass it on to future generations. This made it possible for knowledge to accumulate and become organized. Knowledge was no longer a personal asset but a social heritage. And this heritage-based civilization gained incredible momentum with the industrial revolution.

Humanity, which was already advancing rapidly, skyrocketed at this stage. Science, technology, transportation, communication—explosions occurred simultaneously in every area. Especially when we consider the developments of the last 20 years, we can more clearly grasp the pace of this progress. Today, we use artificial intelligence in almost every aspect of our lives, and even I, along with many others in 2025, could not have foreseen that we would reach this point so quickly.

But at this point, we need to pause and reflect. Because these rapid developments have complex effects on our biological structure. Evolution does not proceed as quickly as technological progress. In other words, while we may be close to reaching Mars technologically, we still carry the biological traits of a primitive organism. Consequently, our bodies struggle to adapt to this progress.

Take obesity for example: In primitive times, high-calorie foods were rare and triggered a high reward sensation. Today, such foods are among the most easily accessible products. This shows that our brains still operate according to ancient behavioral models. Additionally, the fact that muscle power is no longer required in many jobs first confined us to desks, and later—especially with the effect of the pandemic—trapped us in our homes. Thus, physical activity almost completely disappeared.

Today, people who develop software, design, create content, or analyze data mostly spend their days in a chair. Grocery shopping, ordering food, banking, socializing… everything is handled through screens. This may be the first time in history that humanity has become this sedentary.

At this point, individual efforts become essential. Nearly all personal development processes begin with regular physical exercise. Because a physically active body also means a more resilient mind. It has direct positive effects on heart health, the immune system, focus, stress management, and many other areas. Likewise, to counter screen addiction, limiting screen time in the evenings is also recommended.

Behind all these suggestions lies a simple truth: our bodies still want to live as they did in ancient times. They want to sleep at night in darkness, away from artificial light; and to be in motion and close to nature during the day. Modern life, however, imposes the exact opposite. That’s why we try to protect our health with methods that simulate old behaviors.

At this point, I want to share a personal observation from my own life. In the 90s, when I played car racing games on the computer, I used to see the car’s location on a small map in the corner of the screen and wished for something like that in real life. Back then, even imagining this was far-fetched. Years later, when GPS technology entered our lives, we really did get devices that could show us our real-time location. It was a revolution.

In the early years after I got my driver’s license, I never forgot a street or route I took. I prided myself on my road memory. At the time, GPS devices were very limited—you had to update their maps via a computer, and these updates were both tedious and expensive. Traffic data was almost nonexistent or based on statistical estimates. But once smartphones included GPS, everything changed. Thanks to apps like Google Maps, no one needs a sense of direction anymore.

And this is where I realized something that deeply made me think: I no longer remember streets and routes the way I used to. Even if I go to the same place repeatedly, I still feel the need to check the map. Because that function is now handled not by my brain, but by my phone. Today, if navigation services were to be disabled even for a few hours, a city like Istanbul could descend into chaos. Because these applications also help distribute traffic density to alternative routes.

Lazy Brain

This example points to a very critical issue: just like our muscles atrophy when not used, our brains also begin to lose functions we no longer use. Navigation systems weaken our sense of direction. Just like calculators weakened our ability to do mental math. And now artificial intelligence is starting to take over our cognitive processes like analyzing, decision-making, and creating.

I use artificial intelligence multiple times a day. Especially when writing emails in foreign languages, business correspondence—even this essay is reviewed by AI before publication. Sometimes instead of researching a problem, I directly ask AI. And often, the answers are highly satisfactory. This convenience subtly turns into laziness.

All of this leads me to the following question: Are we making our brains lazy, just like we did with our muscles?

Just as we once created machines to ease our physical burden, now we’re building systems that ease our mental workload. However, these conveniences are silently taking away some of our core abilities. Just as we handed over our physical strength to machines, we are now gradually handing over our mental strength to algorithms.

The goal of this essay is not to oppose AI. On the contrary, I’m one of the biggest beneficiaries of this technology. But unless we question the long-term effects of every technology we benefit from, we may one day wake up to find that our sense of direction, memory, and creativity have quietly vanished.

Perhaps in the near future, alongside physical gyms, we will also have "mental gyms." Brain training applications that enhance our memory, focus, and problem-solving abilities will become widespread. And perhaps the most valuable habit of the future will be to remain mentally active.

And I believe today’s entrepreneurs can achieve great things in this field. Because in the future, the most valuable resource will not be information—but a brain that can stay active.