Is Google making us stupid? I do not know for sure, but I do know, that just as Guy Billout says in his article it is changing the way that we as a people think. I have been realizing, just as he does, that this is the way I now think. I search for quick snippets of information on a topic and then as soon as I find them I move on to the next one. I am essentially a hunter-gatherer of the current generation. I have stopped reading longer more engrossing books, in favor of shorter books or stories that essentially explore only one idea and move at the pace of the Internet I have now become accustomed to. Often when I sit down to read a novel, I find myself distracted by an idea it proposes within minutes of beginning to read. This makes it hard to continue to read, so I put the book down and continue to think on the idea while I walk away to go towards some other task. It is usually not the case that I do not like the book, just that I am, in my own way, making the reading process more like that of the Internet: I read a little, stop, and go on to something new.
I also find it genuinely intriguing that he brings up Frederick Winslow Taylor and how he reshaped the way we work so well that we still use it today. The only problem I see with this reshaping of the working community done so long ago is that it was meant only to improve efficiency of the work being done, and by doing this has made the working man into a machine. Why did he not, instead, improve the efficiency and happiness of the workers at the same time? Give them time to relax and reflect, while also making it part of the norm, so they don’t end up rushing through work to get to the next break. Don’t ask me exactly how I propose this to work, because I have not a clue, but think for a moment. Don’t studies often show that workers who like their job are, in effect, more efficient? We cannot lose the human to the machine.
Another thing that disturbed me is the whole Sci-Fi idea that Google aims to put a search engine in our brain. Google’s design is appealing because it mirrors neural circuitry. Yet, the human brain also contains an emotional center without which, we would be a race of automatons. Think of what this would do to schooling. If we don’t have to learn anymore, but simply think of what we want to know and there it is, are we really anything more than a carbon based computer? What then becomes of knowledge, just something for those not affluent enough to afford this piece of hardware? Think of the class boundaries that would form, it would be monstrous. A whole new species would be born, think—Homo Sapiens Sapiens Googlous.
However, despite all that disturbed me with Google’s ambitions, I did like the way he ended the article with the reference to Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odessy. If humans become so automated that computers have more human characteristics than we do, is that not a truly sad world?
Great response, Geof. I find it interesting that you say your skipping longer reads for more short, direct literary experience, yet in an earlier post you mention that Princess Mononoke, a complicated, demanding narrative, is your favorite movie. Indeed, there's a a challenge to Carr's ideas in a book called Everything Bad is Good For You, in which the author, Steven Johnson, argues that our culture has become more complicated, nuanced, and multi-layered during the course of time. So maybe it's something with our engagement with books in particular that is changing, and not are ability to think in depth.
ReplyDeletehunter-gatherer of info. I believe that's what we are all becoming nowadays. Little chipmunks filling our cheeks with whatever we can find, be it something we want or not. Your first paragraph is basically the same way I felt about this article too. Everything changes, and I mean it in a way of concentration. I go from one thing to the next. Am I getting the same amount of absorption of information as I was before, well, I don't know. Are You?
ReplyDeleteHAHA, I also enjoyed your motion into trying to change the mechanic formation that is Frederick's efficency plan. Also your exactly right. To put it shortly, you're pin-pointing my thought in one sentence: We cannot lose the human to the machine. Thank you.
Lets hope we NEVER become Homo Sapiens Sapiens Googlous, because I might actually lose my mind...um, literally!
I really like your "hunter-gatherer" analogy. It's true. They even teach us in school to do research this way, read snippets here and there to find what we really need, then reading in depth when we find it. However, I think some of us skip the reading in depth part. I also love your point about the efficiency of the worker. Isn't it just common sense that the happier you are, the more efficient you are at your job, instead of just becoming a mindless worker bee?
ReplyDeleteThere's a song, "Machine" by Regina Spektor, about society turning us into "machines." I hope Homo Sapiens Sapiens Googlous never happens!
Homo Sapiens Sapiens Googlous. Ha-ha-ha Geof! You make me laugh. I do believe that we have to change our lifestyles due to this change. Can we keep learning by textbook? (Obviously it's not working out too well for many.) We could all just facebook chat our lectures. That might work. You bring up some great points, Geof. Good work.
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