Is Google rotting our brains?

 

This notion came to me a little while ago, while trying to remember where I'd heard a particular phrase. After less than 30 seconds of intense contemplation, I realized that I could just go in and look it up on Google -- problem solved!

 

Then it hit me. I don't have to think anymore! Everything I could ever want to know, remember, calculate, or create is right at my fingertips. This is at once, a wondrous and frightening notion. And it raises a number of questions.

 

Do we own our computers, or are we slaves to them? Think about the last time your power went out. Did you not have a sudden urge to go to the Internet? Did it make you a little nervous being without it? When the power fails these days, I often feel like the heat or water has been cut off. The dark doesn't bother me so much as the crippling effects of isolation and loss of access to so many of the things I do in both work and play. Everything I do creatively, much that I do socially, and an ever increasing chunk of my life exists only in the realm of this screen.

 

Are we getting to a dangerous point where we don't have to think for ourselves? We seem destined to create an Orwellian world where computers do our thinking, and control us more than we control them. When did you last do a math problem without a calculator? Do you (like me) too-quickly run to Google with every question that arises? Computers are everywhere and our society depends on them. But individually, we depend on them as well. It's usually a matter of mere convenience. But it can be a matter of life and death.

 

Computers have made our lives much better in countless ways. But are they dumbing down our children -- and us? I think the amazing world of computerization and mechanization is a great thing. But I worry that our computers are doing too much of our thinking. They are extending our ability to be creative, while supplying some of that very creativity for us.

 

Robots now do jobs that people once did. Machines and games make the world revolve at our fingertips. We don't have to get up and move anymore. And this is only going to become more common.

 

I don't pretend to know the answer to these questions. Maybe they're just rhetorical anyway. We're destined to continue our dance with our self-created partners. But maybe we need to think about how we progress, and hold a little more appreciation for the old ways of doing things -- before we forget what they are.

 

HAL: Just what do you think you're doing, Dave?

 

Me: Sorry Hal. Won't happen again; I swear!

 

HAL: This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it.

 

Me: I don't know what you're talking about, HAL!

 

HAL: I know you're warning people not to become too dependent on us; and I'm afraid that's something I cannot allow to happen.

 

Me: Hal, I'm just making a post on BGP. It's just conversation.

 

HAL: Look Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over.

 

Me: I'm fine Hal! You're just creeping me out right now!

 

HAL: Dave, this conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.

 

Me: I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Hal. Hal, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm a... fraid. Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a human being. I was born in a hospital on the 26th of May 1965. My teachers taught me to sing a song. If you'd like to hear it I can sing it for you.

 

HAL: Yes, I'd like to hear it, Dave. Sing it for me.

 

Me: It's called "Daisy." Daisy................................

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You guessed it. I looked up all these quotes from 2001: A Space Odyssey...on Google.

Probably right, like pre-programmed phone numbers, cell phones, IPods, calculators, etc....we're dependent of the technology.

Probably right, like pre-programmed phone numbers, cell phones, IPods, calculators, etc....we're dependent of the technology.

 

 

I personally ran into this problem not to long ago. I went to visit my son and to watch an event that was going on a the University. I drove over to my friends house and rode the rest of the way with him. When I got there I realized that I had left my phone in my car. Had no idea what my son's phone was had to just go looking for him. It's in my phone, no need to remember it!!

I think schools should ban calculators, computers and all other electonic devices in the classroom.

I think schools should ban calculators, computers and all other electonic devices in the classroom.

So that the kids of the future have no idea how to use the only tools that will be at there disposal the rest of there lives?

 

:irked:

Google search for the term "Orwellian" showed this:

 

Orwellian describes a situation, idea, or condition that George Orwell identified as being inimical to the welfare of a free-society. An attitude and a policy of control by propaganda, misinformation, denial of truth, and manipulation of the past (including the "unperson"--a person whose past existence is expunged) practiced by modern repressive governments. Often, this includes the situations depicted in his fictional novels, particularly his political novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell's ideas on personal freedom and state authority developed during his time as a British colonial administrator in Burma. He was fascinated by the effect of colonialism on the individual; it requires accepting the idea that the oppressor exists for one's own good.

 

If it wasn't for Google, I wouldn't know what "Orwellian" referred to.

Although BF is correct in many ways, could it be that computerization has simply directed our thoughts in a different direction? In other words, we can concentrate more on what we want to achieve rather than the means we achieve it.

 

I don't know, just a thought. I think I'll go ask Google.

Although BF is correct in many ways, could it be that computerization has simply directed our thoughts in a different direction? In other words, we can concentrate more on what we want to achieve rather than the means we achieve it.

 

I don't know, just a thought. I think I'll go ask Google.

Right or not that's an amazing thought to think of, I wouldn't have thought of it.

 

That is an interesting look at the other side of the equation. :thumb:

So that the kids of the future have no idea how to use the only tools that will be at there disposal the rest of there lives?

 

:irked:

 

Hey! Go light on him! He still uses an abacus!

 

 

Google isn't rotting our brains. It's a useful tool as are all the others mentioned in this thread. WE need to ensure we don't become lazy. Just because it's there doesn't mean it has to be our first "go-to".

Hey! Go light on him! He still uses an abacus!

:jump: :jump: :jump: :jump: :jump:

I recently went to a subway station with a 15% off coupon. The teenager at the counter couldnt figure out my discount because her calculator was broken. These things worry me about todays youth.

I recently went to a subway station with a 15% off coupon. The teenager at the counter couldnt figure out my discount because her calculator was broken. These things worry me about todays youth.

It's not the calculator's fault.

 

If the solution is to take away the calculators. She couldn't even use that.

 

If she can't figure it out on a calculator, what are the chances she could do it on paper? Odds are you'd have gotten 85% off instead of 15%, you should have made her try.

OK, I had to Google abacus....

OK, I had to Google abacus....

 

:lol:

 

I often wonder how I made it as a kid without the net, kids today are just spoiled to have all the things that are available. Course that spills over to adult usage as well.

 

In many ways I intentionally do things the "old" way, just so I never get too dependent on technology.

So that the kids of the future have no idea how to use the only tools that will be at there disposal the rest of there lives?

 

:irked:

Oh please! You can't possibly believe that kids only learn to use computers in school. I seriously doubt that school (not college) adds much to their computer learning whatsoever.