Will technology make us dumber?

It won't pick up as much for the same reason why people don't just use "point and click" travel methods. People will continue to physically travel to work as the norm, but the possibility of sky ping into meeting just makes more possible.

 

Technology will make you dumber if you use it incorrectly.

If you turn on your television set and watch Fox News or your radio to listen to Rush Limbaugh.

The answer to your question, is yes. Technology is making some people dumber.

 

I want a REMOTE for my REMOTE!

AboveAlpha

 

Pretty accurate. Technology breeds luxury. Luxury creates dependence. Dependence creates atrophy. It's been suggested that the human species actually peaked thousands of years ago and we are now on the decline. Which seems pretty accurate from all of the petty first world problems that westerners let control their lives today. When you don't have to exert all your effort fending off dangerous predators or trying to procure food for your family, there is plenty of time to get butthurt about somebody using "insensitive language."

The evolutionary curve seems to go:

primate, neanderthal, cro-magnon, warrior, civilized man, spoiled brat, whiny liberal

 

The short answer to your question is nah. The long answer is that it's difficult to respond to your questions because they're premised on fundamental misunderstandings about evolution and how the human brain operates. Firstly, you're assuming that our inherent ability to remember facts has evolved significantly in the last few thousand years, which, strictly speaking, doesn't make sense. People are able to remember as much now (or, as little, depending on how you look at it) as they were before human civilization ever began, because we evolve extremely slowly. Secondly, you're assuming that modern technology (which is not universally available, by the way) has a demonstrable and significant impact on our basic potential to memorize facts and process information. While we may improve or damage our individual memories by relying on modern technologies, our inherent human ability to memorize facts is not actually changed--which is to say, you can always train your memory. You're only as stupid as you want to be.

 

A few months back, I wrote about how technology infantilizes people. I didn't expound on it. I think that technology makes us more powerful, but it also makes reliant on it. Calculators allowed us to study more complex math in the classroom. Computers allow us to use software that perform the work of 100 assistants. Phones allow us to never forget an appointment or find a way to get there. *

I think that technology makes us better if it's used to virtuous reasons.

Technological growth is increasing exponentially. It may double every few decades now, but in the future, it will be every few months, then every few seconds. It's an exciting thought.

* I hate Uber and hate being rated as a passenger. I don't recommend it at all.

 

Maybe.

It will make being very smart about one little thing less useful for sure. We will lose something (as a species) from that.

But other kinds of intelligence may find a huge happy hunting ground.

Of course the jerks (thinking of a word that rhymes with terds) will always hound everyone.

 

Well....here is the thing.

I seem to have a very selective memory.

Evidently my Brain SELECTS to remember every, sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, thought, feeling and data either my sensory organs receive or what thoughts I record.....EXCEPT....for where I left my sunglasses, where I left my Keys and whether receive is spelled Ie or ei.

I am capable of instantly memorizing over 280 words in a spoken manner using a few tricks I am aware of but I cannot for the life of me remember what I drove to the Convenience Store for....was it for Milk? Was it for Butter?

Ahhh!! I remember now! It was to BUY A POCKET DICTIONARY SO I WILL STOP SPELLING CONVENIENCE STORE.....CONVENEINECE....INSTEAD OF CONVENIENCE!!!

AboveAlpha

 

We are getting increasingly dependent on society and technology, while loosing skills and ability required to survive alone, for example, in the wilderness. No groceries, no telephones, etc. What you can do to feed yourself and the family? Even survivalists forums cannot offer much, they are product oriented anyway. You need a knife, a hatched, matches - all products of industry and society. How you can make a fire without matches? Our not so remote ancestors had those skills. Some people of so-called "primitive cultures" still have them.

 

We can get those skills back with something called books. The other side is that we have plenty of non-electronic technology that will last long enough for us to learn our skills. For example with fire making. I have enough ferro sparkers to start fires for years to come. If society collapses, I will have time to learn how to make a bow drill fire.

You are right, though, that we are getting to a point where almost nothing we used is made by just one person.

 

I actually agree with you. Specialization and technology has made people unable to do what they did thousands of years ago, like live purely off the land,not in need of a job or food stamps to eat.

 

It depends entirely on how it is used. A simple example is the addition of minimaps and even more so quest arrows to video games. When I started playing video games in the 90s many games only had a basic map that you had to look at if you were lost and some games didn't even have any maps and you had to draw your own (one thing I did not miss was that time consuming process). ESO recently launched their online game and there were many requests by people on the forums for implementing minimaps because apparently these gamers, and I use that term losely as my cat could probably beat them, claimed that they couldn't find their way around anywhere without a minimap. Seriously, there are no mazes or over complicated dungeons or topopgraphy and yet some gamers have become so dependent on quest arrows and minimaps that they can't function without them. For quest arrows I challenged one of my buddies to play Bioshock 2 without quest arrows and he couldn't navigate down even the simplest of corridors and kept doubling back all the time. It was laughable and yet extremely pathetic. In that regards people are in fact getting dumber.

On the other hand gathering information is far easier than it used to be and I am aware of many more things now that I wouldn't even know about if it were not for the interwebz.

 

Technology makes us more productive. Growth in technology makes it easier for people to do things at a quicker rate, without having to do much work. Growth in technology also means we need highly educated people to develop, maintain and operate this advanced technology. Rapidly advancing societies sometimes need this technology to become user friendly so people who are not technologically savvy can enjoy the benefits of technology without having to major in computer science.

In other words, technology makes some people dumber, but makes society smarter in the long run.

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Why do you need to go out into the wilderness just to prove that you can function without technology?

 

Because we'll need those skills if the Tea Party ever gets their way and turns our lives into a Mad Max movie.

 

I was looking for a real answer.

Save the partisan rhetoric for someone who cares...

 

That's as real as it gets. A lot of people might need those kind of skills, growing food, hunting for food. Seriously, if technology eliminates enough jobs and those that remain are shipped to India, lots of people will need skills not related to jobs just to survive.

 

There is no evidence that technology has eliminated any jobs. Due to technology, some sectors are diminished while other sectors grow.

That generally how it works. That is how it has always worked since the industrial age.

 

In the future, hunting, farming, raising pigs, chickens and cows anywhere, anytime will have to be legal. Have you ever been to some of the ultra-capitalist, zero safety net, old former Soviet republics? Seeing cornfields, roosters crowing and cows grazing between inter-city housing complexes becomes real normal when unemployment is 30% or higher.

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There's no evidence that it hasn't or won't. How about if teleworking really takes hold, and entities can survive without physical buildings? Where will the jantors or cafeteria workers for those buildings go?

 

There is already plenty of evidence that technology hasn't halted job growth. We have a century worth of examples. As I have already explained, technology may cause some sectors to diminish, but it results in the growth of some sectors at the same time.

I don't understand why you insist on having obsolete things continue being... obsolete.

Why would society not have physical buildings?

 

You forgot about computers. Computers replaced workers, saved a lot of money on production, increased profits dramatically, but not salaries of much fewer workers still needed.

 

Computers have also created jobs and increased salaries, as establishments and firms need people to be able to operate software that helps the company. All the more reason why we have certification in computing software, such as Excel, Word, Database, Excel and others. All the more reason why more and more firms are requiring that their candidates have some form of computer literacy.

Is it true that computers are replacing some workers? Yes. Computers have done away with certain low skill work, such as cashiers, telecommunications, and tellers. That is generally the result when people overcharge for their labour or the cost of labour increasing. In any event, this should be seen as a good thing, because people will find work that provides value to someone (and society as a whole).

 

Luckily I have those skills from a lifetime of experience. It would be a massive shock to a person that had no experience in such matters. If you only go get your food from a store and never hunted, fished, raised animals for food, grew your own food, and have basic knowledge of edible plants. You will likely die if forced to learn on your own for a extended period of time. That said the knowledge is no guarantee you will survive. For me the fire without matches would be the hardest it takes time and the correct conditions. If you get it going keep it going. You need it for warmth and to purify your water. Drinking water without boiling it can easily be a death sentence in a survival situation.

Actually the Internet puts information at your finger tips for almost any situation. If you do not practice before hand the information will likely not be retained. Pick a survial skill and practice. If you never killed or processed your own meat it would be a good place to start. Even growing a garden and learning when wild edible plants and go pick some. Most importantly take your kids with you if you have any it is a good bonding experience and gives them a peek into our primitive roots.

 

Some years ago I solved 3 math problems faster with my slide rule than my kid did with a calculator. And all the technology in the world is not going to help me kill Bambi with a bow in order to survive, should the need ever arise.
Enjoy!

 

This is fine. Astrophysicists teach us that outburst of electromagnetic sun glare can seriously disturb magnetic field of Earth. If this happens, all electricity along with computers, Internet and cell phones will become obsolete. We will be thrown back in 18 century. This would be a disaster, millions will die, especially in cities. We have a lot of resources potential quality food. Silver carp for example. In fact, this is a tasty fish. Chinese and aboriginal people of the Amur River basin eat silver carp. I ate it too. It is bony, but the meat is tasty, it can be smoked and dried or cooked until all bones become soft to chew, like in fish preserves. Eurasian carp is a tasty fish too, if not from polluted water. Whitetail deer population is high. Groundhogs are tasty game and so are squirrels.

 

In the begining there would be plenty of game but if everyone is starving it will become depleted very quickly the closer to major population areas. It will not be easy anywhere the largest threat will be the other starving humans. Learn everything you can but nothing will insure survival in a country-wide or global disaster. I live in boonies but not far enough away to be safe. Weeks would be difficult surviving years would be next to impossible.