Technology is turning us into morons. David Brooks of the New York Times says so in this fabulous, tragicomic column, and he's right. OK, actually to be more accurate and less sensational (because that's what blogging's all about), he merely subtly implies that our reliance on the AI of our electronic baubles fosters a culture of stupidity. But, really, same diff. Here's his thesis:
Until that moment, I had thought that the magic of the information age was that it allowed us to know more, but then I realized the magic of the information age is that it allows us to know less. It provides us with external cognitive servants—silicon memory systems, collaborative online filters, consumer preference algorithms and networked knowledge. We can burden these servants and liberate ourselves.Musical taste? I have externalized it. Now I just log on to iTunes and it tells me what I like.
Disagree? Remember that time you had to check IMDB to check whether it was Owen Wilson or Luke Wilson in Kate & Leopold? (Oh, crap. It was actually Hugh Jackman.) Or when you had to resort to Wikipedia to settle that huge intellectual debate once and for all with your buddies as to whether or not Chicago is, in fact, the capital of Illinois.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen!
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"Wherever there's a Times reader selecting articles based on the most e-mailed list, I'll be there."
This is the result of the Power Law, aka "rich get richer" or "winners take all" -- for more profound explanations read this post.