I don't think that's the problem. I think the problem is that there are a ton of apps that are equivalent to digital slot machines.
1. Tiktok, youtube and instagram with a constant feed of < 5 minute videos that are perfectly targeted at your interests
2. 24 hr news with constant tragedy and rage inducing narratives
3. Instant access to pornography
4. Instant access to high fat / sugar food
Having more valuable knowledge instantly available isn't the problem. It's the distractions that get us to waste our lives away swiping at a screen are the problem.
It is not only the fact that we are getting mentally lazy by having on demand access to all of human knowledge and opinion, but it is also that it takes the magic out of certain social interactions. For example, having a discussion with a friend over coffee, where both of you might be trying to remember the details of a specific topic. Previously, you might have spent 10-15 minutes digging into the topic, exercising each other's memory until you both arrived at the 'aha' moment where suddenly you remember the key detail/fact that you both were looking for. Anecdotally, when that happened, it was a deeply rewarding moment (dopamine hit, but you had to work for it!). With all of this knowledge at our fingertips, those moments are gone. I wonder if the lack of that mental 'sparring' and the ensuing reward that it brings is causing us to miss out on a key social/mental feedback loop that could not only allow you to exercise your mind, but also to get you used to moments of frustration and disagreement with another person (which is a useful skill to develop when you are contending with someone on a topic in which the answer is unknown).
Anyway, more relevant to the parent comment, we have faced this challenge before in the physical domain (i.e. our ability to move ourselves vs transportation technology). We have bikes, cars, trains, and planes (and now cybertrucks!), yet we still recognize the necessity for physical exercise (although Ozempic and other weight loss drugs may change this dynamic). Ultimately, with the introduction of technology that makes our lives easier (at least initially), the natural capabilities that we've developed over billions of years to serve those functions become vestigial if not used.
I have always been terrible at rote memorization. I hated math when math meant "memorizing times tables," but luckily it quickly changed into problem solving instead. Further, it never made sense to me that people would want to memorize "facts" with no context - where's the "knowledge" in that?
Even before smartphones and before the web, there was the Internet. I rejoiced! More information than I could store in my personal library available to me - wonderful! It meant that I could still focus on how things fit together and not frustrate myself with memorization.
> The point is that we are offloading many tasks away from our brains, and then filling them up with garbage, such as this comment.
My point is that certainly a lot of that memorization was garbage too. Garbage out, garbage in?
There's also the added social advantage in not being branded an egghead for knowing obscure facts. Now we can just point to them on a phone.
Processing or ingesting? We're being bombarded with information and we're not capable of digesting it all.
Same with goes with communication. We're probably thousands of km away from each other and we can communicate but we can't bond, that why people are more lonely than ever.
Memorizing or just learning information gives us better operation over data and still has use. Consider that we might just be better prioritizing memory usage. Besides, smartphone lookup incurs latency.
Did you really? Huh. I'd look that kind of stuff in the Guinness book of world records. Not sure that's the knowledge to defend memorization of...
True. Again, not the highest priority information to memorize.
Yes, and with that tool the risk of hopelessness by immersion is lower, effectively reducing the barrier to learning a new language.
I think what you wrote is that we know have increased access to the actual names of plants, insects, etc. Whether we then learn and memorize them or not is separate.
Some do but even those still need to consider the correctness of the code. Of course, I've worked with lots of engineers who didn't consider their stack overflow copypasta either.
It's not clear and certainly not universally the case that we are replacing our brain processing and focus with garbage. As before with books and other technologies we choose how we use them. Perhaps you have an unexamined reaction to all of these tools as subtracting from some static pool. It is just as possible to view them as taking low value work off your plate to enable you to do higher value work. I would recommend removing or ignoring the low return tools and adopting those that effectively increase your scope. As with all things responsibility and consideration are required for maximal outcomes.
Hello Mr Socrates! It is with a great sadness I must tell you that writing has taken over the world, contrary to your warnings. But despair not, soon computers will take all intellectual work from humans, and the need to write for business reasons will finally cease. Those who care would be back to.memorizing facts as a sport.
We are offloading work away from our brains.
After the arrival of smartphones and instant access to information, there's no need to remember anything when you can look it up instantly.
Before, you'd memorize facts such as the longest river, highest mountain, etc, now you just query your phone.
Before, you'd look at a map and memorize the street names where you have to turn, now you just open you maps on your phone.
Before, you'd have to learn a foreign language. Now we have instant translation tools.
Before, you'd have to learn the names of each plant and insect, now you have your smartphone lenses.
Before, we would look up the manual for a library function call, now we have AI powered code generation tools...
The point is that we are offloading many tasks away from our brains, and then filling them up with garbage, such as this comment.