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).

Tremont Electric nPower PEG Kinetic Charger - Showgirls Flashdance Energy

Science is vastly more stimulating to the imagination than are the classics

J. B S Haldane, Daedelus

Today is a boring Wednesday July 13^th 2011AD. I posted no blog article on Tuesday July 12^th 2011AD on account of doing an interview in Kingston for a company that offers a really low paying job. Thus tiredness and discussion with my friend with whom I traveled to the interview knocked me out like a light.

So to make up for it, this is one of three (3) posts on a slow writer’s day “when de customers dem a hide me out” as my deceased SDA girlfriend Audia Granston would curse wistfully in her Cosmetology shop, that I wish to get out of the woodwork of my computer files and onto my blog.

Alas, I fear the worst is yet to come, as it appears all my premonitions about the World Economy are coming to pass. We are on the cusp of a Second Recession, folks.

It appears that the problems in the Greek and Irish economies are now expanding to other World economies within the group pivotal to a stable EU, known whimsically as the PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Germany and Spain) my blog article entitled “Apple iPad and the House of Representatives - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” as they are all teetering on default of their relative sovereign Government Bonds.

This as:

1. Portugal is on its way into its own two (2) year recession by 2012AD since May of 2011AD as stated in the article “Portugal recession 'will last two years”, published 5 May 2011 at 15:25 GMT, BBC World News
2. The United States of America political divisionism may result in the US Economy defaulting on its Government Bonds by the US Senate being divided on the issue of Budget cuts and raising the Borrowing cap by printing more Treasury Bills as stated in the article “Obama: US debt talks failure 'could restart recession'”, published 11 July 2011 at 21:37 GMT, BBC World News
3. IMF is now urging Italy to take austerity measures as well as stated in the article “IMF urges Italy to enforce spending cuts”, published 13 July 2011 at 15:46 GMT, BBC World News

So albeit the Greeks have been rescued at the last minute by the IMF with a Euro 110 billion loan package to help them pay off money owed to investors in their Government Bonds as stated in the article “Greece to get next part of IMF financial rescue package”, published 8 July 2011 at 21:53 GMT, BBC World News, there is still the possibility of a Second Recession as shown above.

While these implications loom in the real world, one New York Company has hit upon the fabulous Engineering idea for creating energy from all that restless back and forth walking that must be the result of sleepless nights of US Senators pacing the corridors of Washington DC in worry over the Economy.

Tremont Electric has developed the nPower PEG (Personal Electric Generator) that converts walking motion into electricity suitable for charging small gadgets as state in the article “Motion-powered gadget charger back on track”, published JULY 1, 2011 7:31 AM PDT by Martin LaMonica, CNET News - Green Tech and the article nPower PEG orders being taken, published 07/01/2011 09:59 PDT By Edwin Kee, UberGizmo.

The US$159 device appears as shown below and was the talk of CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2011:

Originally making its debut in June 2009AD as stated in the article “Charging gadget redefines power-walking”, published JUNE 3, 2009 9:39 AM PDT by Candace Lombardi, CNET News - Green Tech.

It is yet another solution to charging power hungry electronic gadgets when no Electrical Power outlets are handy simply by something we do naturally: walking and moving about.

The nine (9) ounce, 9" by 1.5" device has a lot in common with uBeam, a company started by University of Pennsylvania graduates named Meredith Perry and Nora Dweck. Their company, uBeam, was the talk of the D9 Conference held earlier in June 2011AD to market their unique take on the use of Ultrasonics in a Ultrasonic Power Transfer Device to charge gadgets when they run out of power as stated in the article “New Technology beams Power over Sound Waves”, published JUNE 3, 2011 4:00 AM PDT by Rafe Needleman,CNET News - Rafe's Radar.

My blog article entitled “uBeam's Perry & Dweck Ultrasonic Power Transfer - Rafe Needleman's Hidden Village of Sound” took the device a step further and suggested that they team up with Sang-Woo Kim of the Institute of Nanotechnology at Sungkyunkwan University in Seoul, South Korea as stated in the article “Scream at your phone to recharge it?”, MAY 9, 2011 5:09 PM PDT by John Scott Lewinski, Crave - CNET News and use ambient noise to power their device, effectively a Ultrasonic Power Inverter to power their Ultrasonic Power Transfer.

Tremont Electric has developed the nPower PEG is literally the same concept. It uses Faraday’s Principle of Electromagnetic Induction and a pair of coils within the device with a movable magnet tuned to the oscillation frequency of walking. This creates the electrical power when the magnet oscillates up and down through a pair of coils within the device as aptly described in the article “The nPower PEG - US$150 kinetic energy harvester charges smartphones off-the-grid”, published 02:48 May 2, 2010 By Gizmag Team.

With its convenient USB adaptor, this device comes preset to recharge a wide range of electronic gadgets. Great for those days on the road when your smartphones run out, as you can literally walk your way to more power!

Much as my suggestion to convert ambient sound to Ultrasonic Energy, Tremont Electric would foreseeable save on the a lot of electrical power if most gadget owners used the device to charge their gadgets as opposed to leaving it plugged into a wall socket, quote: “If our entire target market used the PEG to recharge their cell phones for an hour each day, instead of plugging into a wall outlet, they would reduce the amount of electricity needed from the grid by 25.4 million kilowatts. That's enough energy to power 21,000 households for an entire year”

A simple solution to a problem a lot less complex than the current Economic catastrophe facing the world in the form of a possible Second Recession as the US Senate Showgirls (1995) do their Flashdance (1983) to save the world from the inevitable. Tremont Electric might just do the same thing for Electronics lovers!