What is happening when a person “goes on autopilot”?
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If you’ve done a task a lot, like driving, you get to where you can do it while not really paying attention. If you do that, zone out and stop thinking about what you’re doing, you’ve gone on autopilot.
Obviously, this is fine as long as nothing unusual happens, but it’s gonna be really bad if something different happens and your brain isn’t engaged. This often comes up in stories like “he was on autopilot, just waving everybody through the gate, and so he didn’t inspect the truck that the bomb was in”, and it’s probably the unmentioned cause of…I don’t know how many traffic accidents, but it’s gotta be a lot.
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