There are many who believe that the internet will make us stupid, so it may come as a relief to know that some 2,400 years ago Socrates believed* that the same would happen because of the new art of writing:
This invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom.
And misunderstanding the capabilities of computers is not a recent invention either; in the mid-19th Century the mathematician Charles Babbage, theoretical inventor of the first mechanical computer, complained:
On two occasions I have been asked, — “Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?” I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.
I found both of these quotes in James Gleick’s The Information, which despite my being only four chapters in, and the fact that it’s only March, is a candidate for book of the year.
* According to Plato.
You said: “2,400 years ago Socrates believed* that the same would happen because of the new art of writing”
Which happens to be true! I live in Morocco where a goodly number of the citizens happen to be illiterate, neither reading nor writing, but they do have amazing memories. In times gone past I employed a maid, when she went to the market I could read her a list of a couple of dozen or more things for her to buy, she would memorise it (using several techniques) and never make mistakes… and this over several years.
Also the stockman where I work looks after a stock of several hundred different types of audio and video connectors, cables and so on. He is also functionally illiterate, but knows from memory where each item is, how many are left in stock and when and why various technicians have taken stock. I have never known him make a mistake, his memory always tallies with our database, and if it doesn’t, then the mistake has always been traced to someone not filling in the database properly.
Socrates seems to have been right, we’ve all forgotten how to use our memories properly.
That’s interesting, Anthony, but I wouldn’t consider that means we are more stupid; we just think in a different way now. Writing has longer term benefits, because it means we have accumulated knowledge; we’re no more intelligent or stupid than past generations, we’re just capable of knowing more. And after all, without writing we wouldn’t know what Socrates said!