The history of spellcheck dates to 1959, when a team from the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Linguistics designed a computer program able to analyze grammar. By the early 1980s, early spellcheck programs were available for personal computers. Today, we know spellcheck isn't 100% perfect but we also know even the thought of writing a 30-page brief, 100-page agreement, or even a three-sentence email without spellcheck is paralyzing. We use it. We proofread. We make mistakes. Spellcheck makes mistakes. We still have jobs.

We use Google Maps. And with it, we also make wrong turns, we run into detours, and we get lost. But we still use it. Many of us don't go more than 10 miles from home without opening the app on our phones—probably even less for city residents.