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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.'"

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  1. Hardly Stupid by 4pins · · Score: 5, Informative

    "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

    --
    I will not mourn that which I never had to lose. - Unknown
  2. Re:Well... by MaskedSlacker · · Score: 5, Informative

    You're just flat out wrong about double negatives. Double negatives in English did not negate each other until the 1700s when people like Samuel Johnson made that rule up out of thin fucking air.

    Going back through Shakespeare, Chaucer, and the Old English period repeated negatives are used as intensifiers. This 'double negatives cancel each other out like negative numbers being multiplied' is a fabrication of the 18th century. Chaucer wasn't breaking any rules with his multiple negations.

    Moreover, there are a number of languages where multiple negations still function in the same way they did in Old, Middle, and Rennaisance English (including some dialects of Modern English).