You think? Nope.

 

I have been spending some time imagining the future. I have considered all the technology and all the things that we will no longer have to do. This leads to the realization that there will be a list just as long of things we are no longer able to do. The logic goes like this:

If we have a calculator, we will no longer have to do arithmetic computations, therefore we will become unable to do arithmetic computations. Other iterations of the thinking we would employ to do simple computations will be likewise confounded. And yes, I have seen this come to pass already. We rely on the crutch so much that it stops being a crutch and starts being an essential part of the process.

Back when I was a boy we had to use interpolation tables to try and figure out logarithms. I don’t remember what a logarithm is or why I would try to figure one out but I recall that we had to look at the chart for a number above and below the one we wanted, then compute the (percentage?) distance between the two that our number was, and then apply the same percentage distinction to the logarithms above and below, and we would find the logarithm for the number we had. In my whole life, I have never had to do that, but the idea of interpolating by looking at relative distances and computing percentages has, actually, come in handy. So if we now have a button on a calculator that presents us with a logarithm, ready to eat, we will not develop the particular skill, or the underlying thought process.

If we no longer have to read a map to get directions, we will stop understanding how to read a map for other purposes, or to read other graphical representations (blue prints or the place mats at children’s restaurants). We stop being afraid of heading into the unknown and that’s fine, but we place ourselves at the mercy of the disembodied voice on our phones. And if it says “take a right” you do it, even if you see that this would lead you off a cliff. Maybe a healthy fear is useful because it demands that we judge and plan. The lack of a need to fold a map will reduce our problem solving in that regard. You thought fitted sheets were tough before? Now - forget it.

The advent of Wikipedia knocked out the need to go to the library. But now people don’t know how to do any research at all, even if it doesn’t require a library visit. Forget about the loss of the skill of vetting information and determining whether something is reliable, this leads (silly as it sounds) to a lack of patience and even a loss of familiarity with the alphabet. Not joking.

Sure, we no longer hunt with a spear and we seem to have done OK for ourselves as a species, but if we let the computer do the target selection, or the aiming, then our strategic thinking and our fine motor skills will suffer. All those phone numbers stored in my phone mean I don’t develop the memory skills to remember anything, not just phone numbers. Can an AI system construct letters and essays for me? Then I lose a sense of personal voice, and style and even self. I never learn to structure argument or write persuasively because I expect it is all done outside of me and I can rely on a technology to think for me. Spell check means I no longer have to understand how words work and are structured and it bespeaks an inability to break down other things to see how they are built. Grammar checkers absolve us of then need to understand the interplay between words and how clarity in sentence composition represents clarity of thought. Our thoughts are then not refined in that regard and we can’t assemble a valid sentence without that crutch.

We no longer write things out by hand which will lead to an inability to do such – an evolutionary change in our hands away from the musculature which allows for writing and into any parts needed for typing or swiping or whatever. We no longer sign our names, instead we click on whatever link or digital X that our accountant appends to our tax forms. Soon this will mean we no longer need to know our own names. And no, I’m not catastrophizing and inventing a dystopian future. That dystopia is already here. I have students who don’t understand how to sign their names (some don’t know how to spell their names when they write).

The fear is a degradation of skills and of the foundational elements of thinking which are transplantable into other contexts. When we short circuit these skills in one area, we end up harming all the other processes which similarly rely on the same foundations. If a computer can draw a picture then I don’t work to learn to draw (which might help me appreciate spatial relations, the symmetries in the world around me or any of the many realizations which art allows me to see) and I never end up imagining a world I want to see. If instead of fighting wars, I send drones, I don’t need all that physical exercise that basic training requires. I never learn the teamwork, and the respect for human life that having to stare at an enemy combatant might afford. Instead of playing sports, I can be content to sit in the basement, growing bigger as I let my virtual self get some exercise.

Again, I’m not acting the luddite, nor am I being hysterical, bewailing a future where we are all incompetent without wifi. I am commenting on a progression (or regression) which has its roots in observable history and which is already taking place. My students can do very little without consulting their phones and they have no understanding of how those phones work.

I have touched on these themes in earlier posts – between 2014 and 2018 (because I am that ahead of the curve) but important messages cycle back around.

https://rosends.blogspot.com/2018/03/2-rantz.html (part 2)

https://rosends.blogspot.com/2017/11/what-hath-internet-wrought.html

https://rosends.blogspot.com/2014/12/look-it-up.html