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drop bombs, not acid....
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handofdave
handofdave
3515 posts

Re: drop bombs, not acid....
Oct 26, 2008, 20:20
nigelswift wrote:
"I don't think it's going to far to suggest that the personal computer and the internet are right up there with antibiotics, making fire, and the wheel in terms of being monumental achievements."

Totally. But if downsides ought to be mentioned as well I'd like to cite the demise of expertness. There was a time when if the chatter turned to, say, moths (about which I know a lot) I could derive some innocent pleasure from being a guru. Now, every bugger's an expert, in proportion to their skill in making a quick web search. And I'm told there are people who actually make out they are quoting from their own knowledge, though that might be just a rumour. ;)


I'd have to disagree with that. Just because you can pull up information quickly from the internet doesn't make one an expert. You still need contextual understanding of what you're looking up to be an 'expert' on it.

Did you ever read the William Gibson 'Neuromancer' (early 80's)? In that fictional future you can buy chips that plug right into a surgically implanted port in your head that grant you instant, useable knowledge, such as a foreign language. I don't see that happening for a while... we still are very fuzzy about how complex knowledge is assimilated in the brain.
He also conceived of 'cyberspace', tho, which he extrapolated from early video parlor games. It's funny to think now that he wrote that novel on a manual typewriter.
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