BFTP: A long history of technology warnings
Friday, March 20, 2015 at 01:40PM “Writing destroys memory and weakens the mind, relieving it of work that makes it strong. Writing is an inhuman thing.” - Plato (500BC)
From the Slate article Don't Touch That Dial by Vaughn Bell that outlines how humans have always viewed new information technologies with trepidation:
A respected Swiss scientist, Conrad Gessner, might have been the first to raise the alarm about the effects of information overload. In a landmark book, he described how the modern world overwhelmed people with data and that this overabundance was both "confusing and harmful" to the mind. The media now echo his concerns with reports on the unprecedented risks of living in an "always on" digital environment. It's worth noting that Gessner, for his part, never once used e-mail and was completely ignorant about computers. That's not because he was a technophobe but because he died in 1565. His warnings referred to the seemingly unmanageable flood of information unleashed by the printing press.
This was timely for me since I heard a recent speaker warn about our mobile technologies becoming our "outboard brains."
Great article to share with your more technophobic colleagues.
Original post February 28, 2010.
Reader Comments (2)
Love the analogy, Doug. It works as I continue to confront my resistance to learning :)
Randall,
I don't think you have any resistance to learning - at least about important topics. Seems like you epitomize life-long learning to me.
Doug