Diminished function - the human brain vs technology

evil wasabi

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To preface, I am not writing this post on my phone with autocorrect, so I don't have any excuses for any mistakes herein.

In 2001, I would squirm every time I would mistakenly type in "teh" or "waht" quickly clicking the edit button to fix the mistake. Today, these issues are mostly forgotten as we have autocorrect to replace the mistakes, but at the same time, they often replace what the autocorrect cannot parse as predictable English. For example, if you want to write swathes of people, it may autocorrect to deaths of people.

Smartphones became widespread around 2006; they are now old enough to marry and have children in the eyes of some religions. We use our technology to augment our brains, but only to a point - and that is only to the point that we need it to. A superficial level, glossing the surface of any topic.

And I am saying this as someone who isn't battling people on social media, but rather still engaging people face to face in the winter of my youth, as a reluctant member of Generation X. Fro the millennials the reality is that they probably buffer the gaps in knowledge quicker with superficial and impermanent data. No need to memorize. This is equivalent to disregarding the multiplication tables because you always had a calculator handy.

  • For me, I used to memorize phone numbers, but now I just remember numbers from before 2001.
  • I know the difference between your and you're, but autocorrect doesn't, so I usually look stupid, but it doesn't matter, because so does everyone else.
  • I can talk about think and share opinions on matters that I lack any deep understanding of, thanks to wikipedia, and argue with other people who have no understanding either, because neither of us give a shit enough to spend the time and learn, as we don't need to in order to "win".

TL;DR: technology as a whole has dumbed humans down to the docility of Brahman cows, self-invested in the sacredness of their own existences.

How has technology weakened your brain stats?

I blame autocorrect on my diminishing spelling skills. People like to point at social media as the fall of civilization, but I put way more blame on autocorrect.
 

LoneSage

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Cool idea for a thread but just gonna swipe here:

I can talk about think and share opinions on matters that I lack any deep understanding of, thanks to wikipedia, and argue with other people who have no understanding either, because neither of us give a shit enough to spend the time and learn, as we don't need to in order to "win".

Do people normally do this? Like if someone disagrees with me, even if it's something I am 100% sure is correct, I'll just agree with them and end it. I can't even remember the last time I 'argued' with someone. Is this normal?
 

GohanX

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Some people have to argue with other things, other people are just chill and let things go since it doesn't really matter. I think you are the latter. Most of the time when I interject myself into an argument I'm trying to make someone think, not necessarily argue a point (and I may not even believe what I'm arguing.)
 

max 330 mega

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This may not be related to technology, but I assume that it probably is. Nowadays I get really frustrated with the fact that it takes me so much longer to really "lock in" and focus on a given thing. This has definitely lessened my interest in videogames, but I also feel it try to creep into other more important daily tasks. I can definitely feel my mind frantically scan for super fast key data it knows it needs to ensure something is what it expects to see, but then if I attempt to explore and analyze something deeper, I can almost feel my own brain fighting me because it's become so used to being able to search for an answer on a computer or a phone and then immediately disregard the info when no longer needed.
I've really taken up reading books a lot in the past year in hopes that it will lessen that knee jerk reaction and get my mind to slow down and really think about things.
 

titchgamer

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Hmm interesting thread.

I guess it has positives and negatives.

For the pro side people can get info at their fingertips to help the fix and diagnose problems with something that they could not of even attempted before, In my case I recently fixed my cars heater with the thanks of some you tube videos and some schematics I found online.
The negative to that is sometimes people will attempt something that they really should not.
As a Electrician I have seen this several times especially with people wanting to change a light fitting. The general opinion is ahh its only a few wires whats the worse that can happen?
I have had to re-wire umpteen light fittings that have been done incorrectly and caused problems with the rest of the circuit and I had to replace one fitting after the chap thought it was safe to just turn it off at the wall switch and then electrocuted himself.

Auto correct is a funny one really, For me its a god send as I am dyslexic (Although I never normally admit it or play on it) but the whole English/American English thing can cause problems in terms of correct spelling to choose like Colour/Color if it even gives you a option.

My mental maths has certainly degraded over the last 10 years, Where I used to be able to do reasonably complex maths in my head these days I go to my phone as its always in my pocket and I have nothing to prove anymore.
Much the same with equations for working stuff out, The important ones I remember and the rest I will just google or use a app on my phone.

I think however we need to make a important definition between those who could do stuff before and those who could not.
What I mean by that is if you take my occupation I am old enough to of (at some point atleast) remembered and understood the reasoning and logic behind something, For instance working out the current carrying capacity of a cable. I know why it is what it is.
Where kids coming into the profession now (and this was confirmed by a college lecturer friend of mine) are basically lazy.
If they cant get a app to do it for them they are lost and can not work it out for themselves.

Of course thats not to say this applies to all youngsters, I have had some great apprentices over the last 10 years however the lack of problem solving skills does seem to grow year on year which I think is a genuine concern for the generation as a whole.

They are by no means un-intelligent or anything but as someone mentioned above its more of a throw away knowledge kind of generation where they need the answers readily available to them.
 

Takumaji

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I don't use autocorrect or stuff like that and also have no advanced phone so my brain is okay. Well, according to age, that is.

The conveniences of our time seem to create what I like call biotope dwellers. They need a specific set of material, tools and toys to function properly and show an irrational, almost child-like behaviour if one of the elements they think they cannot live without is missing.

A colleague of mine is a good example for it, once we had to spend two nights at a bed and breakfast place for an outside fireworks job and he forgot to take his phone with him. Of course the beds were too hard and not anti-allergic, the shower was not big enough and the towel was no special antiseptic nano-copper-boosted version but simple cotton and caused a nasty rash, the coffee was a normal "peasant brew" (no latte whatsoever) and not hot enough, they also had no Bircher muesli, work was too hard, my salutes were too loud, constant whining about the missing phone, etc...

This seems to be linked with modern tech as well as the constant re-invention of products that basically cannot be improved anymore in order to keep business going.
 

Tripredacus

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I do not use autocorrect and I disable it on any device or software that enables it by default.
The slots in my memory once reserved for phone numbers has been freed up for more important things, probably.
 

terry.330

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I remember reading an article a few years ago that says with younger people they did a study and it showed that they don't retain information and that due to technology it has remapped parts of the brain to basically just be able to remember how to recall how to look up stuff but not actually remember anything. I remember having to write essays and you had to go to the library and use books and site sources etc. Now kids just go to wikipedia. Kids not having actual school books everyone just has an iPad and the teacher just gets emails and not actual papers. Shit kids can't even write cursive.
 

Neodogg

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If you want to argue, I've got a 5 year old who'll argue anything anytime, she'll be a great lawyer...
 

GohanX

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I remember reading an article a few years ago that says with younger people they did a study and it showed that they don't retain information and that due to technology it has remapped parts of the brain to basically just be able to remember how to recall how to look up stuff but not actually remember anything. I remember having to write essays and you had to go to the library and use books and site sources etc. Now kids just go to wikipedia. Kids not having actual school books everyone just has an iPad and the teacher just gets emails and not actual papers. Shit kids can't even write cursive.

You could argue though, is it more valuable to be able to find the answer to any question easily, or to retain a much smaller amount of information in your head?
 

fake

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My cursive has really gone to shit since I started using a keyboard.
 

terry.330

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You could argue though, is it more valuable to be able to find the answer to any question easily, or to retain a much smaller amount of information in your head?

It's a question of learning ability. It will fuck your head up with the amount of stuff you can't mentally retain because you don't need to anymore.

IE: what year did Blade Runner come out and what was Rutger Hauers last scene vs. pulling up a YT clip. Or a music video that has that in there that you didn't even know what it was from.
 
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smokehouse

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I guess there's two ways of looking at this.

Technology has freed us in many ways...how many still know how to stalk a wild animal, remove its hide, salt cure the meat and make a hat from the pelt?

Better yet, we have technology designing technology. How many structural engineers could design a building without software. For that matter, how many people could build a car from scratch without the use a computer?

You could look at it in a negative light, the dumbing down of society, or you could say that it is outdated technology and we are evolving. People want to lament about the death of cursive...but fewer people physically write anything anymore. Hell, the only thing I actually write down on paper are notes to myself. Is the passing of something all the big of a deal is no one uses it anymore?


The only dangerous thing about all of this is if things collapse. With tech building tech that builds tech...we have a long way to fall. Without even basic survival skills, most people wouldn't make it.
 

evil wasabi

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The only dangerous thing about all of this is if things collapse.

Which is plausible. If we suffer a cyber attack and a huge power grid is shut down in the wintertime, people will probably freeze to death in their homes.
 

titchgamer

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The only dangerous thing about all of this is if things collapse. With tech building tech that builds tech...we have a long way to fall. Without even basic survival skills, most people wouldn't make it.

Skynet.....

That is all....
 

fake

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Which is plausible. If we suffer a cyber attack and a huge power grid is shut down in the wintertime, people will probably freeze to death in their homes.

I mentioned this like a year ago in the Dumpster Fire and, I forget who, probably Lithy, told me I was an idiot.
 

evil wasabi

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I mentioned this like a year ago in the Dumpster Fire and, I forget who, probably Lithy, told me I was an idiot.

Lithy is a survivalist who has been waiting for the collapse of society patiently so that he can seize sovereignty from the ill-equipped.
 

fake

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Lithy is a survivalist who has been waiting for the collapse of society patiently so that he can seize sovereignty from the ill-equipped.

I've got 3 days' worth of water and a halberd. I'm ready.
 

Heinz

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I've never liked auto correct so It's one of the 'features' I turn off first. If it was perfect every time then I can see benefit if you're so time poor you can't slow down or correct your own text... how many people are THAT time poor? Exactly.

Now phone numbers? used to remember them but now there's a contacts list! I've completely lost the ability to remember phone numbers for more than a day. It doesn't help being in the telco game either where phone numbers and programming is your life.
 

StevenK

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I remember arguments in the pub about whether whoever was in whatever film or not raging for the whole night. I specifically remember disagreeing over whether DNA stood for deoxyribonucleic acid or deoxyribosenucleic acid and large sums of money being wagered on the result when someone could get to the source of an answer.

All of these arguments are no longer necessary as the actual answer is a second away at any time.

As stupid as these quarrels were I kind of miss them.

Now in the pub we are forced to bicker about unanswerable questions - politics, religion, philosophy, economics. There is never a resolution. You could argue that it is a good thing that the common man is talking about these things, but it also feels like everyone with a smartphone feels they are qualified to argue about anything now, and I know I'm as guilty of this as anyone else.

I miss the days of "what bra size is pamela anderson", simpler times.
 

F4U57

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I guess there's two ways of looking at this.

Technology has freed us in many ways...how many still know how to stalk a wild animal, remove its hide, salt cure the meat and make a hat from the pelt?

Better yet, we have technology designing technology. How many structural engineers could design a building without software. For that matter, how many people could build a car from scratch without the use a computer?

You could look at it in a negative light, the dumbing down of society, or you could say that it is outdated technology and we are evolving. People want to lament about the death of cursive...but fewer people physically write anything anymore. Hell, the only thing I actually write down on paper are notes to myself. Is the passing of something all the big of a deal is no one uses it anymore?


The only dangerous thing about all of this is if things collapse. With tech building tech that builds tech...we have a long way to fall. Without even basic survival skills, most people wouldn't make it.

This is how I’ve accepted it. Technology is here to stay. We may as well embrace it or just unplug, get off the grid and go live in the bush.

Moore’s Law - we’re rapidly increasing our tech and we can’t really fathom where we’ll be in 10-20 year’s time. Did we all really think we’d be carrying around high-powered CPU’s in our pockets back in the 2000’s? The millennium virus was very real to us though back then. These days we just shrug that shit off and take every possible thing for granted. And why shouldn’t we? Tech is blowing our minds.

Keep up or get left behind I say. That said I’m very nostalgic for the past. Old man yells at cloud, I guess...
 

norton9478

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I remember arguments in the pub about whether whoever was in whatever film or not raging for the whole night. I specifically remember disagreeing over whether DNA stood for deoxyribonucleic acid or deoxyribosenucleic acid and large sums of money being wagered on the result when someone could get to the source of an answer.

All of these arguments are no longer necessary as the actual answer is a second away at any time.

As stupid as these quarrels were I kind of miss them.

Now in the pub we are forced to bicker about unanswerable questions - politics, religion, philosophy, economics. There is never a resolution. You could argue that it is a good thing that the common man is talking about these things, but it also feels like everyone with a smartphone feels they are qualified to argue about anything now, and I know I'm as guilty of this as anyone else.

I miss the days of "what bra size is pamela anderson", simpler times.

I'm sure that cell phones have made games like "Green Glass Door" no fun.
 

norton9478

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I reject the idea of "digital natives".

It is my experience in working with millennials and generation Z that their ability to use technology is overstated. I think that they are a bit stunted in some regards. In part, it is because of their reliance of cell-phones (a dumbed down, poor man's computer).

A cell-phone is essentially a 2019 version of Web-TV.

I find that their troubleshooting skills are a bit weak and that they don't have a clue (or even an interest) as to how things work behind the scenes.
 

Heinz

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Norton, ignorance affects all ages... I see it, hear it every fucking day.
 
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