Technology and Intelligence

Nick Carr has an article in the Atlantic Monthly entitled "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" In addition to the points he made, here's a few comments:

• Much of his argument is similar to Neil Postman's "Amusing Ourselves To Death" (one of my favorite books). Although Postman is dealing with print vs. video, it's a similar contrast.
• I wonder if some of this parallels changes that come as we grow older. It seems to me that as we age, we generally accumulate a rich store of narrative fragments, frames, and models, and therefore are more likely to fit new knowledge into one of those frames than to thoughtfully consider the need to create a new frame. I realize that individual personality is probably a more significant factor, but I know that I'm not nearly as likely to work hard at following the nuances of an statement as I used to be. Of course, the sheer volume of info I skim each day only makes this worse (which is Nick's point).
• Print knowledge does tend to be more monolithic...especially if it is recognized as fundamental to a field. In contrast, almost all the Internet consists of fragmented information.
• I wonder if this is yet another cultural factor that's degrading our ability to procure, define, design, build, and test large complex capabilities (e.g., in the defense arena). If so, this degradation could continue for years to come.
• I wonder if Nick is perhaps over-reaching when he accuses Google of Taylorism. I see his point, and think it's valid, but just because you measure something doesn't mean that you've adopted a reductionist framework...or maybe I'm just very skeptical about how far Google can go with "build[ing] artificial intelligence."
• I suspect that a broader cultural factor may be postmodernism's loss of belief in the possibility of organizing frameworks. Why try to discern a complex and nuanced perspective if it's all merely a reflection of past power structures?
• And, I suspect that modernity's loss of belief in an organizing purpose may be a factor. Why try to gain deep understanding when "all is vanity?"
• Finally, any speculation about the limits of the brain's plasticity (or lack thereof) must be taken as just that. It's unclear if we'll ever have a deep understanding of this area.
  

Regardless, Nick's always worth reading...I just wish he had mentioned Postman.