Columbia U says Google erodes Memory - Johnny Mnemonic The Computer wore Tennis Shoes

The true University of these days is a Collection of Books

Carlyle, Heroes and Hero-Worship

This article should really be entitled “I told you so” as did indeed say this in a couple of my previous blogs entitled “Apple iPad and Newspapers - Return of the Jedi” and the article “Telecom Providers, Bloggers and the Media - Robin Hood, Men in Tights” in which I complained about the lack of reading among young people due to what appears to be a shortened attention span. Plus Audia Granston, my Seventh Day Adventist princess, often pointed this out to me that which I shall reveal later down in my article: Google is rotting our brains.

Both of my previous blog articles, which are related to this recent revelation, swirled about a common article on BusinessWeek and CNET News articles respectively related to a book by Nicholas Carr entitled “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains”.

The news that so troubles me?

Columbia University has presented findings of a study that effectively provides strong evidence, if not clear proof for what author Nicholas Carr hypothesized in his book entitled “'The Shallows': Is the Net fostering Stupidity?”, which made its debut in June 2010AD: The Internet is indeed “fostering stupidity”.

This as the article entitled “Google rewiring the way we remember, study says”, published JULY 14, 2011 7:57 PM PDT by Leslie Katz, Health Tech - CNET News and the article “How Google is wreaking havoc on our memory skills”, published JULY 14, 2011 by MOLLY MCHUGH, DigitalTrends gives details as to how the memory is being altered by our interaction with the Internet, specifically a search engine name Google. 

The research paper, which appeared in Science Journal under the title “Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips” is authored by lead researcher Dr. Betsy Sparrow a psychologist by profession, who sums up her research simply, quote: “We are reorganizing the way we remember things. We remember less through knowing information itself than by knowing where the information can be found.”

Dr. Betsy Sparrow study revealed that people were more likely to remember where to find information as opposed to the information itself, and their chief portal for that information was the Internet. This suggests that the ease of access to information is in essence, making us use our brains less and thus is “fostering stupidity” as Nicholas Carr posits.

Not surprising, I grudgingly admit uncomfortably, as I have personally been a chief exponent of this concept, as I find it pointless to memorize that much information in one’s head. Even in my work habits when I was a Network Maintenance Technician at C&W Jamaica Ltd (2001 to 2004) and later as a Radio Frequency Technician at Telecom Provider CLARO (2008 to 2009), I HEAVILY depend on Laptops, the company’s assigned Blackberry Bold smartphone and my written notes (best of all, as I still have them!!!) to remember things for me.

This as the tedious nature of Telecoms Engineering work meant a lot of island wide driving about and checking left you tired. So any research done would have to be via the Internet, being as it was the main mode of communication via email being as we were building out a islandwide HSDPA or 3G Compliant Data Network and GSM Voice Network with a tertiary CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) Voice and Data Network for Landline.

GigaOM Mathew Ingram  has my back in this respect in his article “Why it’s okay to outsource your memory to the cloud”, published July 15, 2011, 10:03am PT By Mathew Ingram, GigaOM.

However Audia Granston, my short pint sized Seventh Day Adventist Princess and NCTVET certified Cosmetologist, who would be my Navigator as I drove about in my Suzuki Swift Jeep from Cell site to Cell site, would criticize me about this, labeling my poor memory as a side effect of too much computer use.

She is more on Nicholas Carr’s side of this argument, being as her job as a Cosmetologist, while alive, entailed more memorizing people’s names and faces and personalities, information which Google cannot provide us with……..yet!

Even this article is written using Google as the research portal, as opposed to checking books first then going to the Internet when I could not find the information in books.  

The respective article on the book entitled “'The Shallows': Is the Net fostering Stupidity?”, published June 3, 2010, 5:00PM EST, by BusinessWeek - The Stack and the article “A hard look at the Web's 'shallows'”, published JUNE 29, 2010 4:00 AM PDT by Tom Krazit, Relevant Results - CNET News suggested this as well. That is to say, the more we use the Internet and depend on it for all our information, the less we use our brains and thus become less capable at thinking independent of computers.

Author Nicholas Carr book is a follow-on, curiously, to another controversial book entitled “The Big Switch”, in which he predicted the coming of Cloud Computing. Looks like he is spot on, as even here in Jamaica as evidenced in my blog article entitled “Digicel Cloud Backup Service and future Cloud-Based Services - V.S Naipaul's A House for Mr Biswas” and the Geezam Blog article entitled “Digicel’s Cloud Backup Services – A deep Analysis” this is true.

Plus my raft of articles mentioning “Cloud Computing” are easily searchable on my personal Blog. So in my eyes, Nicholas Carr work is visionary as he sees the human side of a Silicon Valley that wants to “wow” you with gadgets that they themselves understand how to use and which have such a deep impact on how we think.

As for a solution to this problem, unlike Dr. Betsy Sparrow of the Columbia University and Nicholas Carr? Get used to it, as it is the eventual future of humanity as the article “Why it’s okay to outsource your memory to the cloud”, published July 15, 2011, 10:03am PT By Mathew Ingram, GigaOM encourages us to do.

I just hope that the Cloud-Based Networks and Broadband Networks, be they Wired, Wireless or Waveguide (Fiber Optic) these Telecom Provider are building such as the KDDI all Data Network in Japan as stated in my blog article entitled “KDDI's Broadband WiMax and Wi-Fi Municipal Network - Ruckus's Japanese Flight of the Navigator” are made more reliable and at least can satisfy the five 9’s i.e. 99.999% uptime requirements for an always connected society.

Also it would be really good too if the “Manual” switch is kept nearby, as the level of interconnectedness that the future heralds with M2M (Machine-to-Machine) Networks as stated in the article “The Internet of Things [INFOGRAPHIC]”, published July 15, 2011 at 9:00 am PST by Dave Evans, Cisco Blog and prognosticated in my blog article entitled “NFC and M2M – Cashless Society and the Internet of Things” is frightening.

As I had advised in my blog article entitled “Google and AI - The Matrix and Terminator Rise of the Machines” and the article “Google and AI - I Robot.

This as the eventual extrapolation of both the work of Dr. Betsy Sparrow of the Columbia University and Nicholas Carr leads to a scenario not unlike that presented us in a benign way in the movie The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969) and more obviously with memory augmentation in the movie Johnny Mnemonic (1995).