Saturday, September 20, 2008









Reference: Is Google making us stupid, Sunday Brunch, Bangkok Post, September 21, 2008

It has been proposed that the Internet is a little too efficient for its own good because it is now preferred to books as a source of information. As a consequence, we are not reading books as much as we used to and that implies that we are becoming stupid.. (Is Google making us stupid, Sunday Brunch, Bangkok Post, September 21, 2008). Ironically, the printing press itself was also similarly derided because it made calligraphy redundant. Throughout history we have stupidly misrepresented the tools of knowledge as knowledge itself and tried to cling to them even after they had worn out their usefulness. Printed books are tools. just like calculators. Just as mathematics did not go down the drain with the death of the abacus and the slide rule so we are not becoming stupid by using a new tool more than we do the product of the printing press. It's been a while since Gutenberg changed the world; and we are in for a few more changes before we are done. You ain't seen nothin' yet.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

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