A polarizing topic of the 21st century: Is technology making us smarter or dumber? Dumber, says Nicholas Carr in his book, The Shallows, and smarter, says Clive Thompson, in Smarter Than You Think.
In a New Yorker Blog on technology and intelligence, Tim Wu, Professor at Columbia Law School, makes the debate less polarizing by noting that the two writers aren't saying two opposite things, but two different things, because each is addressing a different "Us".
The "Us" in Clive Thompson's book is the cyborg part of "Us", i.e. our auxiliary brains, while the "Us" that Carr is concerned about is the "man" whose identity is moored in the rich and timeless heritage of Western Enlightenment. The "man" in Carr's notion is getting diminished in the hegemonic universe of technology.
So, depending on which part of the "Us" "you" are addressing, technology is an augmenter or a diminisher.
No comments :
Post a Comment