---In [email protected], <turquoiseb@...> wrote:
--- In [email protected], wrote:
>
> We're getting dumber. At least most everyone else is ;-)
I agree. I just posted the article to see if anyone else would.
> 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.
Exactly. You see the same thing here on FFL, where people who have ego
problems read a post about something they know nothing about but feel that they
have to say something, so they go running to Wikipedia and Google and then
spout off as if they know shit. That's not intelligence; that's being an
intellectual poseur.
> 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.
Agreed. But don't dump on "keyboard tappers" too much. I lament the day when
"autocomplete" and mobile keyboards obsolete the concept of Being Able To
Write.
Although I say it somewhat tongue in cheek, I wouldn't be surprised if at some
point in the future one of the primary causes of Alzheimers is proved to be the
curse of having "information at your fingertips" via computers and mobiles. Who
needs memory and actual learning when this little device covers your ass and
you can use it to convince others that you "know" stuff you really don't? The
rule of biology is "Use it or lose it." You're not using it when you look up
shit on Google.
How very strange - this postulation. So how does one exercise one's little grey
cells effectively, Bawwy? Not by evading ongoing discourse. Not by living in
one's own little made up world. Not by ignoring all those who you feel might
challenge your world view. And certainly not by sticking so savagely to your
guns. Nope, your brain is positively atrophied with inflexibility. You'll have
read this post but you sure as hell won't admit it. Poor bugger.
