I really like this gadget, because I have all the information I need in my pocket. I no longer feel the urge to memorize things. This left me wondering on which effect this would have on me. I have noticed that using internet at home and at work has already had a negative impact on my ability to recollect. However I became very competent in finding and organizing information on the net. With the internet readily available, will my ability to recollect decrease even more? And my skill in organizing information increase?
This reminded me on an empirical research on the brain, which focused on the allocation of brain functions. More specific, a test was done on the Braille reading skills of people with full sight of which half of the group was blindfolded for a long period. The result was that the blindfolded group had better reading skills. More research showed that the blindfolded group almost performed as well as blind people. The theory behind this phenomena is that the human brain can allocate sections of the brain for specific functions (e.g. the section normally used for seeing, was now allocated for reading Braille).
Will my brain reallocate, with the internet in my pocket?
Consider this question on a larger (time)scale. What would be the effect on the individual in the long run (imagine not days or weeks, but generations)? And what would be the effect on a society, in which a large number of people have access to this technology?
Interesting thought… just to proof the speed of change, look at the skills of new students in grammar and calculus… disappointing! Is this due to new technologies, bad education or both (we adopted education to the expectations of skills needed with new media).
It remembered me of the attitude of my teachers in high-school with the emerging calculator. Almost forbidden since I needed to learn maths by heart. Wise or foolish? But In highschools today, calculators are least of their problem… so I guess maybe the body needs more time to adapt or truly re-allocate functions… but behavior certainly is changing rapidly indeed.
By the way: Firefox just removed 3 typos in English for me and I notice the same in Google… I never type the whole word or do take the time to type it correctly… I just type something ’sort-of’ or ’sounds-like’ and Google says… aha do you mean this or that… how simple… but can I survive with this ’sort-of’ lifestyle? Fascinating question what google-mentality does to my brain.
One of the research experiments Susan Greenfield showed was with rats. One group of rats had zero challenges, just routine everyday. Their brains didn’t develop any side-branches… but rats with challenges die grow branches in their brain which later turned into connections. Their brains evolved into a network not just a spider-like model. This happened within a one generation of rats… if it was exposed to these challenges in the formative years its brain just developed differently.
SO… big question is… does the ’sort-of’ or ‘find-it-instead-of-know-it’ lifestyle expose us and our children to less or more challenges or just different challenges? To my opinion (for now =) learning stuff is part of cultural development, knowing stuff is partially training your brain to remember and partially to be part of the commons, but looking for stuff is definately more of a challenge, provoking thoughts, expectations, finding connections. And especially the latter is for me very important. Will we move away from ratio not maybe more emotions (using the senses?) I mean the problem with ’searching’ is knowing where to look for. Zero intelligence or knowhow will make it very difficult to gain more knowledge. Zero IQ + Google doesn’t make you hyperintelligent! Knowing stuff will put you brain to work, to forester intuition. So learning less (detail) might provide space to know more (broader)!
Wauw difficult question… what do you think?
Just to freak-out (since you asked possibilities in multiple generational changes =)
I presume that ’semantic-web’ is therefor the utopia… a search-engine which truly understands what you mean, enabling you to know even less… combine that with wisdom of the crowds… Everything has already been thought of before you… how can you add value as a citizen, consumer, worker, individual? What will that do to a society… to some futurists, this might extend brain-lifetime and human intelligence… since when a brain dies all the explored territory could remain online instead of having to be replaced by another young-brain (student) which still has to learn all the stuff… but that is science-fiction? or is it? Imagine scientists could have continued to work with Einsteins-brains since its representation was still online and vivid!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web
PS kewl phone indeed!
interesting thoughts, indeed!
i don’t know if the semantic web utopia is ‘the next big thing’. or is it? probably more wishful thinking in it’s current definitio
anyway, what i do believe in is the hive mind. we already see that information spreads more and more rapidly. we have seen flashmobs, in holland our adolescents strike from highschool because they can coordinate their strike through msn. do you think your new phone will enable new ways of group behavior through collective intelligence?
i wonder what would happen with you if you lost your phone… (can we still call it a phone?)
I think your brain is reallocating in a way that is described by Carol Stroheckker as New Learning, and I think that’s a good thing.
New Learning is more about relations amongst things and more of a constructive process than just remembering facts. Any provided information or facts is of value when a person is not just the receiver of this information but when the information is actively processed. If that person is able to combine the information with their own experiences, their own memories, their own existing understandings, then the combination becomes the new thing that is learned and new value is created.
Google for example can be used as repositoty and additional value can be created by the constructions of new connections and figuring out the gaps.
Additionally most learning happens amongst people, inspirering each other, providing different angles on the problem at hand. The different ways of connectivity on your phone or computer might just add to the learning process.
I do think that the potential of applications on computers/phones is a lot higher than these devices currently provide. The application’s representations today are barely capable of modeling problems or idea’s. But this might change in the near future.
Imagine a wide tv screen in your contactlens and viewing movies, tv, internet, social sites, chats, phonebooks instantly and direct, without having to take out your phone.
http://uwnews.washington.edu/ni/article.asp?articleID=39094
The biggest challange is (indeed) probably not the technology, but the emotional readiness of people. Are you ready for a serial port in your brain?
Of course you’re ready for a serial port! If the man says its safe, and the early adaptors have proven it works and your friends and competitors have got built-in chips and contactlenses which communicate directly with the brain, hell, you’ll build a serial port in your kids brain too (they’ll have better results in school than their peers).
In some time we’ll have that contactlens, which does the same as your phone, e.g a pop-up will apear as soon as you’ll have an appointment. With your iris as a ‘mouse’ you’ll ask for directions to your appointment. A red glow at the end of 5th avenue suggests that you should start walking in that direction, indicating that you are a 10 min. walk from your objective. While walking, and following the ‘glow’, you pass some people with a green marking around their head. Their name and further details are shown in the bottom of your ‘eye-screen’. You politely nod them a ‘hello’, mentioning their name, as these are people that you have got registered in your database.
An accident happens in front of your eyes. A car skipped the red-light and ran over a pedestrian. You notice the police know allready that you are in the aproximity of the accident, because, as the red dot in the right-top-coner suggests, they started downloading your images from the last 5 minutes, to use as 100% eye-witness in court.
Great stuff. Nothing goes on unnoticed, or it must be that branch breaking of in the rainforrest, with no one witnessing it.
Of course there is this weird group of individuals that don’t have built in serial-ports (and therefore no insurance, can’t use public transport etc.). They have the advantage that, when the power fails, they’ll still be able to find their way around the city and recognize people/situations/buidings. But the power won’t fail and everybody lives happily ever after. Or will it??