Saturday, June 12, 2010

What do we learn from practicing?

Does constant texting and googling really make us dumber? Or is the moral panic about new technologies just another in a long line of unfounded fears, going all the way back to Plato's comments about how "writing" ruined kids' ability to remember stuff?

Stephen Pinker thinks we're going to be fine, that it's just a generational divide and that new tech isn't making us dumber. Amongst his evidence is that we keep making more cool new discoveries and inventions. And we keep training new scientists and inventors.

In fact, in this discussion of different opinions on the topic, someone points out that reading is unnatural. We evolved into our current state long before the Book was invented. Reading printed words is a very unnatural act, and if doing something regularly changes your brain, then reading little black squiggles on a white page utterly alters your brain from its natural hunter-gatherer preference.

I really like how Pinker slams on quick-fix "brain training" games and things. Like diet and exercise to lose weight, the way to become skilled in a field isn't complicated:
Accomplished people don’t bulk up their brains with intellectual calisthenics; they immerse themselves in their fields. Novelists read lots of novels, scientists read lots of science.

It isn't easy to devote years to learning a field, but it's not complicated.

No comments: