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I don't remember when it was that I came across the concept of externalized memory but I find it a fascinating thought.
Ever since the advent of written texts, so the theory goes, we humans have been moving along a steady process of externalizing our memory: i.e. we use external things to store information rather than remember it ourselves. Why remember the history of your people and retell it from rote memory when you can inscribe it and read it later on when you wish to 'remember' it.
In the last few hundred years we have increasingly devised memory storing devices to replace the use of our memory: photographic cameras, various audio and video recorders, computers, and finally... the cell phone.
It seems to me that we are, as a society, desirous of the obsolescence of our our minds. That is to say, we jump at any device that will lighten the intellectual burdens of life to the extent that we run the risk of loosing much of our intellectual capabilities. To be fair, the sheer amount of things we have to remember in our day-to-day modern lives is astounding. But when simple mathematics becomes a burden it seems to me that we've gone too far. Yes, calculators are very handy devices, but our minds have amazing capabilities that we so often neglect (or don't even know we are capable of anymore). It seems to me that some people have gotten the silly idea that smart phones are better equipped to live our lives for us than we are. Are those impressive little electronic tools turning us into tools?
Algorithms can never replace humanity's ability to problem-solve. At what point are we externalizing ourselves? What do we do when the technology fails to solve problems for us... panic? I worry that at some point, if we continue along this path, that may very well be the only response left us.
Using our intellectual capabilities ought not be a burden, but rather a pleasure. For it is one of the greatest gifts our Creator has given us with which to interact with this marvelous world we inhabit. Let us not neglect so great a gift.
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