Being in familiar places, performing routine acts, and having "common" experiences is often reported to result in the brain entering a kind of "autopilot" mode. In autopilot, one carries out the familiar, routine, common things that are called for, with the consciousness entering something like a state of waking torpor. This being characterized by active boredom, inattention, sometimes tedium, a feeling of detachment, and often blurred-together memory.
Pop explanations for this phenomenon are that the brain is saving resources; not wasting time being fully aware, fully calculating, or fully recording memory, when the situation has already been well recorded and analyzed in previous encounters. As a result, so goes this reasoning, the brain has more resources and energy to devote to new things that may happen later.
Yet, anecdotally, I enjoy my life more when I am highly "present" in the moment. I revel in the feeling of being aware of my surroundings, of the things that I am doing; the way that this keyboard responds to my fingers, the feeling of the desk's faux wood finish on my palm, the exact arrangement of my pencil, eraser, and sharpener, &c. I enjoy it much more than the "autopilot" alternative. There may be some connections to the subjective sense of the passage of time, and other topics, as well.
Putting aside the question of reliably attaining this level of presence, there is an apparent conflict between the pop-psychology theory of autopilot, and my anecdotal experience. "Autopilot is necessary, so that we do not burn out our brain's resources on useless things", says the one. "I enjoy my life more when I am not on autopilot", says the other.
So, what actually is the functional reason for the autopilot? Does it save strictly limited brain resources? If so, which? How limited are they? Are they insufficient, if not saved? How insufficient? Is the brain a resource which is weakened by use, instead of strengthened?
And what if this autopilot were to be overruled? What would be the risks to the brain, or to its function (day-to-day, or in moments of crisis, etc)?
In short; if I can pull it off, is there any reason not to "live in the moment" constantly, and override the "autopilot" function at every turn?
