Thursday, June 20, 2013

Is Google making us stupid?
I- Does deep reading come naturally? How?
II- How do you expect one to read and research like years ago while the pace of life has changed a lot?
III- How is it possible to make a machine more intelligent than humans?

I want to start with a quote from Benjamin Franklin. He says in his linguistics book, " tell me and I will forget. Teach me and I will remember. Involve me and I will learn." i agree with what he said but it needs to be adjusted to our life style now.
The writer believes that the deep reading comes naturally. But I think reading is an skill that should be learned. In our modern life that people are running to be able to be done with all their tasks by the end of the day, how can we expect the old way of getting information? It is not the time to spend hours in libraries to find books, read them all to find a topic of interest. We should avoid spending time on finding the information we need while someone else has already spent it. I think speed in getting the information is different from processing and keeping the gathered information stored in mind. Our mind is like an empty room. We can order what we need to arrive by an ordinary or express mail; but when we have the things ordered, we need to put them in the right place. So the data can be reached anytime they are needed in a short time. I agree with what Benjamin Franklin says about learning completely. But I think we need to update it to present. We need to involve our brain and learn how to process and store the data in the right place. Neuron connections are like a network; the more ties and more treads, the stronger the network. When a new data inters our brain, it should be processed and related to some old connections of data. This is what we need to learn these days instead of spending time on getting the information.

Our brain is like a computer. There is input, processor and output. By using the search engines and internet, we have shortened the time to spend on getting the input. But the main part is the processing and putting the output in the right place. Does not matter how fast we get the information. What matters is connecting the data with as many old data as possible and make it meaningful. So the involving part of Benjamin Franklin’s quote should be done in this part of the process.