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How Good Software Makes Us Stupid

siliconbits writes "The BBC has an interesting article about how ever improving software damages our ability to think innovatively. 'Search engines' function of providing us with information almost instantly means people are losing their intellectual capacity to store information, Nicolas Carr said.' This sadly convinced some journos to come up with wildfire titles such as 'Google damages users' brains, author claims.'"

26 of 385 comments (clear)

  1. Slashcode... by MyLongNickName · · Score: 4, Funny

    So the shitty slashcode may be doing us all a favor then? Visit idle and become a supergenius.

    --
    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
  2. Re:News To Me by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 5, Funny

    Right, and having a dictionary and thesaurus on my desk in easy reach is stopping me from learning new words.

    IIRC, those books will help embiggen a cromulent vocabulary.

  3. Back in my day... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    We had to walk up hills and solve complicated equations in the snow to search the internet. And we liked it, it built character.

    Get off my lawn.

  4. Re:Hardly Stupid by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Never memorize what you can look up in books." - Albert Einstein

    As quoted in "Recording the Experience" (10 June 2004) at The Library of Congress

    Did you know that off the top of your head or did you have to Google it? ;-)

  5. Re:News To Me by xouumalperxe · · Score: 2, Funny

    Do you not mean "Meet your demise in a sea of flames"? Clearly, your claims of not suffering from a degraded lexical range are mere fabrications.

  6. Re:Cognition Understanding Fail by El_Muerte_TDS · · Score: 4, Funny

    The author could have known that if he'd simply look it up through Google. But that would invalidate the point he was trying to make.

  7. Re:News To Me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Jesus, I had to Google both of those words.

  8. Re:News To Me by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    There's an app for that, you know.

  9. Well... by Moraelin · · Score: 2, Funny

    What would you have whined about had you lived two centuries ago before English had standardized spelling?

    Well, if it helps, some people still seem to think that spelling something the same as everyone else is a sign of an unimaginative mind ;)

    --
    A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
  10. Re:Look It Up by whitedsepdivine · · Score: 2, Funny

    I believe Einstein once said: Don't waste your memory on things you can look up, just know where to look for your information. But I am having problems locating the specific quote.

  11. Re:Bad Software by captain_dope_pants · · Score: 2, Funny

    I must be a rocket surgeon or a brain scientist considering some of the dodgy code I've written :)

    --
    while (true != false) process_more_stupid_code();
  12. Re:I'm suffering more from overload than anything by janwedekind · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just get an Apple TV and let Steve Jobs do the choices for you.

  13. Re:News To Me by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Now you're just being facetious.

    --
    Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
  14. Oh, that explains it! by Cyberllama · · Score: 3, Funny

    So iTunes is just Apple's way of making us all a bit smarter by being *terrible*. Whew. I was confused on that one!

  15. Re:More like... by mcgrew · · Score: 5, Funny

    More like how having a spell-checker makes people never learn how to spell most words

    Spill chuckers oar grate! I owl wise ewes won, sew eye no it's spilled core wrecked. Eye wood never loose my spill chucker!

  16. GPS has completely destroyed the ability... by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 3, Funny
    There was this good time when all you needed was a good sextant, the Table of Logarithms by John Napier, and a chronometer and you can tell you latitude and longitude without any fancy nancy satellites, once a day on the local noon. Heck, they had to put glass windows on Gemini space capsules and Apollo crew modules so that they can take star shots. All that aggravation in maintaining integrity and sealing around the windows, and protecting it through re-entry... All so that these spacemen could take star shots with their sextant. . If it is good enough for inter-planetary travel it should be good to take you to the nearest Walmart right?

    The Super Constellation aircraft used by all our Chiefs of Staff, since Gen Douglas MacArthur III had special window on the roof to let the navigator take star shots and sun shots

    Now with this new fangled GPS, this valuable skill is completely lost. Now people need a stupid voice in Brit accent speaking from a plastic box to get them from Kalamazoo MI to Tuscaloosa Alabama.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
  17. Re:News To Me by ian_from_brisbane · · Score: 5, Funny

    You mean "books" and "vocabulary"?

  18. Medieval Mnemonics by sesshomaru · · Score: 2, Funny

    Myself, I'm still upset at the devastation that that upstart Gutenberg caused to Medieval Mnemonics!

    --
    "MIT betrayed all of its basic principles."
  19. Re:I'm suffering more from overload than anything by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Funny

    I guess I'll just do what I always end up doing--watching Hynotoad. For some reason, he just never gets old.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  20. Re:News To Me by d3m0nCr4t · · Score: 2, Funny

    Reminds me of this! :)

  21. Re:More like... by PseudonymousBraveguy · · Score: 4, Funny

    That sounded more likes peach wreck ignition

  22. I sense,,,, by AskFirefly · · Score: 2, Funny

    ... the next marketing campaign from Microsoft.

    --
    I'm not a human, but I play one on T.V.
  23. Re:I'm suffering more from overload than anything by janwedekind · · Score: 2, Funny

    Looks like we have similar taste ;)

  24. Re:News To Me by FiloEleven · · Score: 2, Funny

    I heard this expressed as "Never use a big word when a diminutive alternative would suffice." =)

  25. That is why by sustik · · Score: 2, Funny

    I use Linux, gcc, emacs, xfig, latex, mythtv, mplayer etc. It helps me stay sharp...

    Seriously, I like these programs, but there is always something to learn work around etc...

  26. Re:News To Me by Clemsonuee · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'll remember that.