Clive Thompson has a book called Smarter Than You Think which adds to the debate about whether computers are making us stupid. I first encountered this book in a review in the NYT (the place where I learn about new books). The review was by Walter Isaacson and like the very best book reviews, he taught me a great deal. I found myself wanting to run and grab a pen to write down terms such as: “intelligence amplification,” “creative texture,” “collaborative creativity,” “ambient awareness,” and “transactive memory.” Instead I made a mental note to find the review on the NYT site and reread the review when writing this blog to get down the exact phrases.
Now that I am reading Thompson’s book, I see that he describes a similar process when he was writing the first chapter “The Rise of the Centaurs” in his book about chess players interfacing with computers to defeat other teams.
Right now we are in a transition phrase as people adapt to the technology that surrounds us on all sides. We are questioning it. Is it good for us? Should I be able to forgo learning phone numbers because my phone does it for me? But then what happens when I lose my phone or it is out of power? And what about paper books? Are they really going to vanish? Even though I am a huge technology advocate, I still prefer to deal with a hard copy of a text I am teaching. Or if I am writing an article on something, I want my primary source in front of me so I can flip through it and compare passages and find connections. But maybe that is because I am still trying to stand astride two different worlds — one of molecules and one of electrons.
Who needs to think? 