Is google making us stupid?

[9ofClubs]

Now do not take this the wrong because many of the things that have been said here are quite salient.

However:

Ya'll sound like a bunch of old people complaining about the way it used to be. It is a tool, use it wisely and teach your children to do so. If there is a failure it is in us, not our gadgets.

Also, the irony of this thread quite delicious . . .

[mariposafe]

Point taken.

The problem with a lot of the technological advances is precisely that people fail to recognize them as mere tools, and allow them to virtually dominate their lives. In English we have a saying : "the tail is wagging the dog" and that's exactly what's happened (via inate laziness ???????) with mobile phones, laptops, etc. I've met rather too many people who sincerely tell me that they "can't live" without their phone, the internet whatever. One of the worrying things is taht the internet was intended to be a resource for free information, but it's become politicized and businessized (sorry, can't think of a better word) and we can't be certain that the information we find is "truth" or propoganda; in short, the internet is going the same way that television did.

Something that annoys me a little is that google has bred a new type of "researcher", namely one who believes that "research" simply means spending 30 minutes online looking for people with the same opinions.

I sugest however that we all make the best use of this tool while we still have it ...............

[sirdipswitch]

Just a tool. That when used properly, just like anything else, can and will bring great reward. Just as it has done for me. Through the use of my computer, and knowing how to "work" Google, I used it to build my brain, and learn how to do OOBIES. chuckle chuckle. I now use my Higher Self, as my Source, for wisdom. chuckle chucklechuckle.

Love, peace, Humor
sirdipswitch

¤=[Post Update]=¤

Ps: oobies = out of body incredible experience's

[NancyV]

Posted by 9ofClubs (here)
Now do not take this the wrong because many of the things that have been said here are quite salient.

However:

Ya'll sound like a bunch of old people complaining about the way it used to be. It is a tool, use it wisely and teach your children to do so. If there is a failure it is in us, not our gadgets.

Also, the irony of this thread quite delicious . . .

Yep, just wait until You're an old grouchy man and YOU get to complain. You'll love it about as much as us old folks love it. Even if we used to think our elders were complaining, whining, out of touch old coots, we're not going to miss out on OUR turn to bitch... and it's so much fun!

[NancyV]

I think computers are making us both smarter and less sensitive in some ways. If we are already smart a computer will be a great tool. If we're already a lazy ass jerk, a computer will help us be lazier and more of a jerk more easily. So just like with any tool it can either enhance your life for the better or be used for not so healthy reasons.

There is also an aspect of being on a computer that I discovered when I first went online on AOL in 1994. Several of us more "spiritually" inclined people found, much to our surprise, that chatting/typing live on a computer could give us a telepathic hook up or strong and wild energetic exchange and increase in sensitivity. The more we focused on a particular conversation and the more emotional or intense it was, like talking about spirituality, energy, love (not sex!) etc., the more it would happen. So I came to the conclusion that it was a tool for focus between a sender and a receiver. It led to an actual full on merging a few times. It could also have been happening for me and a few I chatted with because that was the time I spent a full year 24/7 with an intensely active kundalini rush that I couldn't shut off.

But the main thing I'm grateful to computers for is that I met my husband on the computer in 1995. Without the AOL chat room we probably wouldn't have met.

[Dennis Leahy]

Get into a time machine, go back 30 years. Walk into a library to research something. Go to the card catalog and start searching. Oh, I forgot: pack a lunch. And dinner. And breakfast.

I had as many as 215 tabs simultaneously open to articles when I was researching/composing/editing the Reset Button. Imagine 215 books and periodicals open across a few dozen library tables for comparison. Now, make it exponentially broader: realize that in many of the 215 open tabs there are articles that include additional hyperlinks. Figure in the amount of time saved by being able to scan entire PDF files and web pages with an additional search filter.

Aristotle would have traded his toga for a day with Google (though he would probably have been smart enough to use IXQuick instead.)

Dennis

[markpierre]

I'm already stupid. That's why I think I need Google.

[korgh]

Posted by Dennis Leahy (here)
Get into a time machine, go back 30 years. Walk into a library to research something. Go to the card catalog and start searching. Oh, I forgot: pack a lunch. And dinner. And breakfast.

I had as many as 215 tabs simultaneously open to articles when I was researching/composing/editing the Reset Button. Imagine 215 books and periodicals open across a few dozen library tables for comparison. Now, make it exponentially broader: realize that in many of the 215 open tabs there are articles that include additional hyperlinks. Figure in the amount of time saved by being able to scan entire PDF files and web pages with an additional search filter.

Aristotle would have traded his toga for a day with Google (though he would probably have been smart enough to use IXQuick instead.)

Dennis

Well said, Dennis

I still remember many years ago when one of the ways to share knowledge were made through the BBS (Bulletin Board System) via telnet ... Also, we communicated through lines X25. After that, came the Mosaic, my first web browser. Also we used the Gopher, IRC, etc. .. When I needed to research something or share, we had a whole world of information totally free, through the universities, even our homes. Were available all kind of information without any restriction. Good and bad. You were absolutely responsible for filtering this information and the way it would use it.
Today, 30 years later , all you have to do is "click". Click, click, click. for this or click for that. If you are looking for something, there are search engines that show results based on your profile, location and content across the most desirable for you.
My concern is the fact that we are slowly being molded on "how we should think", act and interact with each other". Creativity, good thoughts and great ideas are confined to live and die in the underground.
More and more people lives in social networks and leave what is best in human beings: freedom of choice in decisions.
That's why Google, as the topic suggests, contributes in each "click" to try to make us a little more stupid.

Cheers

[Snoweagle]

Posted by Paul (here)
I guess my HP-35 calculator made me dumber too ... as I could no longer use my K&E mahogany slide rule with skill .

Google has been very useful to me in finding and searching in wider disciplines. I know much more about history, physics, nutrition, economics, cosmology, and other subjects than I did a decade ago. At the same time, I no longer focus on a single technical area as I did before (coding system software to support CPU and Memory management on huge computers such as the NSA might use to track all us humans.)

This is good change .

Me too, though my plastic Thornton PIC 251 (slide rule) is in reach of my right hand should the lights go out.

We are witnessing a global "book burning" as repeated throughout history. In Europe, particularly the UK, libraries are closing faster than dominos falling and it breaks my heart at the ignorance of the "technological" generation of youth entirely dependent upon gadgets, gizmos and gluttony.

As our older generation pass on, key important skills will be lost, not least the mentoring of young minds.

One Electromagnetic Pulse pulse will eradicate all of known true history. Mankind will return to the stone age over night.

[Iceberg]

Imagine a big library full of books. What do you have there is information and how do you use this kind of information its up to you. You can't blame the library if you have picked the wrong book.

[kingmonkey]

Some interesting answers here. Just out of curiosity, i was wondering how many people actually read the article to the end?

I suspect many did not. Correct me if im wrong. I suspect many started to read and got half way through, and maybe skim read it. Again maybe i'm projecting my own behaviour onto you just as the author is. But is it not true that generally speaking we tend to skim read, seeking the vital piece of information and rarely finding it?

I don't agree with all the points he makes and i think it is best to avoid an all or nothing mentality; the internet is bad vs the internet is good., but i think some very interesting points are made concerning how the constant information overload actually is effecting the way people are reading. A sort of shallow information processing vs in depth and engaged reading.

[NancyV]

Even though Nicholas Carr was somewhat admittedly pessimistic in his article about the Internet and what the next steps may be, I thought he presented a very balanced and complete picture of the history of communication and information gathering and the reactions to it at every step along the way. Personally I went through some of the same thoughts he has expressed when I first resisted getting a computer because I felt a typewriter was all I needed. LOL...This was in about 1991. Then I resisted going on the Internet for several years. Most recently my husband bought himself an Ereader about a year ago. I have always had hundreds of books and greatly valued them. When my mother died I also inherited her 6,000 + books. My reaction to the Ereader was totally negative and resistant. It seemed to devalue the way I cherished BOOKS!

I had to really think a lot about it as my husband likes to kid me all the time. He'd come down and stand there with a smirk on his face in front of my bookcases looking at my science fiction collection, then start laughing. I'd say "what's so funny"? Then he'd say something like, "you really have a lot of books, don't you". My response "Yep, I sure do". He'd laugh some more and say "ok, you have some books, but I have about 10 times that many and I don't need any bookcases to hold them!" I'd say "But you can't FEEL them, you can't HOLD them, STROKE them or LOOK at them!!! When the world blows up you'll have to read MY books! Yours will just be a small piece of scrap metal when your batteries run down and no way to charge them!" Then he'd laugh and mock me more, I'd strike back and then we'd both laugh.

This went on in one form or another for about a month and I had to argue with myself a lot. I realized that I was valuing the material possession of the books over the information and content. There has to be a balance between being a stick in the mud old fogie who is resistant to new technologies and a wise human who holds onto certain intangible values and traditions that add to the quality of ones life. As Carr says in his article, there were alway those who resisted change and warned of dire consequences. Even writing itself was resisted as it might lessen the ability of a person to REMEMBER if they had something written down where they wouldn't need to remember. Well, I guess that's true. We don't have to remember as much as we did before writing was invented.

No matter what we want or what we think, evolution won't stop in our comfort zone. It will continue and we can certainly resist it if we choose. Maybe in another 10 years when I'm 75 I'll stop giving new music and new technology a try and settle in to a comfortable old fogie fog in my final years. Until then I'll give a listen to and tryout the new and sometimes awful art and music forms and technologies. But being open has shown me there is a certain beauty in almost everything, even RAP and heavy metal music! LOL...I don't think that changing the way we think will impact our core essence, our soul. One cannot often determine if a particular evolution or new technology is beneficial or detrimental for a long time. In the meantime we'll continue on experimenting and playing here in the physical dimension. None of it changes our soul connection to Source. In fact the less deep thinking we need to do may even open us to more spiritual awareness instead of being detrimental. We shall see.

PS: I now have my own Ereader

[huyi82]

the reason why we are so heavily reliant on google is that we have come so used to using it for such a long time we ask it simple questions that we could be better off asking ourselves, i've been trying to stop relying on it for everything i do, it's not easy but it means i won't be so reliant on it all the time and answer every question that i know i can answer myself.

also the reason why the government have made it so easy to use google is because if the internet is eventually turned off say because there is no electricity and people are then forced to use their brain to find answers a lot of people will be unable to find those answers and be left stranded because they won't be able to know what to do, the same people who use their mobile phones 24/7 will be effected too.

people need to stop using the internet for answers and start solving solutions for themselves because google will not be there forever plus they censor search results and only let you see what they want you to see, just like tv.

[kingmonkey]

Another article i came across.

http://www.worldcrunch.com/tech-scie.../#.UFtuWo7r27N

[Carmody]

Why is it that when I try to search for things I KNOW I've posted on this forum, that I can ever find them?

Why is the search engine for this forum set up backward?

Why does it always revert to being unusable as it's default position?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

basically, this comes about, as I'm trying to reference something I posted on the forum.

I searched in EXACTLY the same way, on GOOGLE, that I did two weeks ago, and the searches come up NIL. i did this in order to make sure that what I'm searching for here on the forum, is spelled exactly the same way it was - when i posted it on the forum. In order to check and see if I'm searching wrongly on this forum, Avalon.

Google is filtering it out, on my end, in a way that is different than it did just two weeks ago.

Google is filtering out Nazi historical information.

Differently than it did, just last week.

Now, their excuse may be that they are filtering me, for my search ease and benefit, but this looks like total horsepuckey to me.

[Paul]

Posted by Carmody (here)
Why is it that when I try to search for things I KNOW I've posted on this forum, that I can ever find them?

Why is the each engine for this forum set up backward?

Why does it always revert to being unusable as it's default position?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

basically, this comes about,as I'm trying to reference something I posted on the forum.

I searched in EXACTLY the same way, on GOOGLE, that I did two weeks ago, and the searches come up NIL. i did this in order to make sure that what I'm searching for here on the forum, is spelled exactly the same way it was when i posted it on the forum. In order to check and see if I'm searching wrongly on this forum, Avalon.

Google is filtering it out, on my end, in a way that is different than it did just two weeks ago.

Google is filtering out Nazi historical information.

Differently than it did, just last week.

Now, their excuse may be that they are filtering me, for my search ease and benefit, but this looks like total horsepuckey to me.

My understanding is that the search engine on this Forum is simply rather stupid, whereas the Google search engine is malevolent, both in providing much useful intelligence to the bastards and in hiding much useful information from us sheeple.

[Carmody]

I searched for this :

AMT IV

and AMT4

and AMTIV

Nothing came up.

two weeks ago or even a week ago, on google, it was coming to shape, about 4 items in. Now..it's NOTHING.

AMTIV

is 'department IV', known as the Gestapo. Depatment A, is political opponents. A4, is political assassinations.

Thus, searching for the simplistic department alphanumerical designations/listings..... now brings no results.

Which is Wholly different than even a week ago.

[Paul]

Posted by Carmody (here)
Google is filtering out Nazi historical information.

I'd be curious as to more specifics of what they are filtering; I continue to use Google, imagining that I can continue to make good use of them despite their attempts to control search results. But doing so makes it important that I stay open to noticing the changing limitations.

P.S. -- I see you already answered my question, as I was asking it.

[Carmody]

We're probably talking about maybe less than a dozen people sitting in rooms, rooms that regular Google employees no nothing about.

A place where the search kernel parameters and specifics are subtly changed, according to instructions given to this small quiet group.

[Paul]

Posted by Carmody (here)
I searched for this :

AMT IV

and AMT4

and AMTIV

Nothing came up.

two weeks ago or even a week ago, on google, it was coming to shape, about 4 items in. Now..it's NOTHING.

I see "AMTIV" returning results from Google ... for many irrelevant details.

I see "AMTIV" returning some results relating to the SS from DuckDuckGo.com, and "AMTIV SS" returning more concentrated results from both DuckDuckGo.com and Google. I see "Gestapo Amt IV (Department IV)" returning quite good results from Google. These results reflect my typical way of manipulating search results, to get more concentrated results, by adding additional terms (after first going deep into the Google results for a single simplistic term, and/or going to other search engine interfaces, in order to get enough clues to suggest what additional terms to try.)