We're getting dumber. At least most everyone else is ;-) The article only skimmed the issue but it's not clear to me why having instant access to info via the internet makes someone smart. No more than being able to look up an entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Someone who had taken the trouble to learn how to speak a foreign language (Latin, for example) will have disciplined herself and engaged parts of her brain a keyboard tapper misses out on. That extra factor will have honed the intelligence of the time traveller. Someone who has mastered the openings in chess will have a keen edge to his intellect completely lacking in a modern who just uses a computer to provide a ready-made solution. A comment below the article quotes Albert Einstein : “Never remember anything that you can look up”. But would you want a secretary who always had to look up how to spell a word? You want the knowledge to be integral to the person - to have that organic connection - and not be an add-on or an app. ---In [email protected], <turquoiseb@...> wrote: This New Yorker article points out that the answer depends on what you mean by "we." Does that include you and your smartphone, or just you? http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/01/if-a-time-traveller-saw-a-smartphone.html http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2014/01/if-a-time-traveller-saw-a-smartphone.html
