Google making you dumb

[MadMojoMonkey]

This just in: Humans use tools, and - in so doing - forget what it was like before they had those tools.


Seriously, though:
It's nice that they brought up Aristotle making the same point, but funny how they missed the irony in the prediction that the invention of the alphabet would make humans lazy.

It seems to me that it boils down to:
What is the cost-benefit analysis of spending the time to memorize something vs. time saved having memorized it?

It's tough that it's not usually obvious at the start what is worth memorizing or how much time it will save.

It's also tough that new technology dramatically changes how we do things and how long it takes to do them.


It's a good life skill to know how to change a flat tire. However, I have met a few people who have no freaking clue and were relieved as anything that I was there to help. That doesn't signal the decline of civilization... it just means that our civilization is complex enough that we don't all have to have all the life skills in order to be functional in society.

[Savy]

It's a good life skill to know how to change a flat tire. However, I have met a few people who have no freaking clue and were relieved as anything that I was there to help.

I bet there are wiki guides on how to do it.

I actually do lots of things miles better than the majority of people in the generation before me because when I want to find out how to do something I am capable of using the internet and getting the combined knowledge of people who are actually interested enough to post about said task on the internet.