Nicholas Carr Foresees Brains Optimized For Browsing

An anonymous reader writes "In the next decade, our brains are going to become optimized for information browsing, says best-selling author Nicholas Carr. According to Carr, while the genetic nature of our brains isn't being changed by the Internet at all, our brains are adapting 'at a cellular level' and are weakening modes of thinking we no longer exercise. Therefore, in 10 years, if human beings are using the Internet even more than they do today, says Carr, "our brains will be even more optimized for information browsing, skimming and scanning, and multitasking — fast, scattered modes of thought — and even less capable of the kinds of more attentive, contemplative thinking that the net discourages."" While Carr isn't making a case for Lamarckian evolution, the argument here seems weak to me; the same kind of brain change could be attributed to books, or television, or the automobile, couldn't it?

Comments

Re:weak analogy

[Dahamma]

The counterargument here seems weak to me

Yeah, that's because the original article was written by a best-selling, Pulitzer prize nominated author, and the counterargument was written by timothy.

Re:pssssssh

[spazdor]

DUH. Brains can already run on emacs, didn't you know Lisp was originally developed for AI research?

Just type ctrl-shift-R meta-K semicolon shift-Q-X, hit F13, and hold your occipital lobe against the SysRq key for 5 seconds. Voila - instant, permanent transfer of consciousness from the boring old physical world, into your third-favourite text editor! It couldn't be simpler.