The Future Doesn’t Need Us (Just the Internet)
Jay Currie, one of the few conservatives I’ve found on the Web who isn’t a complete nutter, had some thoughts on the future of the Internet. I posted a comment there, but as my thinking got out of hand, I’ll repost it here:
I first encountered the term ‘Internet-addled memory’ a few months ago. I’ve already forgotten where. I think this will be a real issue with our children, and have a potentially transformative effect on education. How will you convince children that they have to memorize facts (particularly obscure ones) when they literally have them at their fingertips.
Particularly amongst well-off, well-educated people, conversations and debates will be constantly punctuated by references to handheld devices, or, later on, specialized glasses, or, later still, Internet access points embedded in their optic nerves.
Obviously, this already happens online. I’ve been a member of the Vancouver Canucks USENET group for nearly a decade. Over the years, debates have increasingly become riddled with statistics and quotes. Why? Because the Web has made it possible.
Generally, many trends that begin online end up in the real world. Take ‘texting’–an enormous phenonmenon among the youth of Europe and a growing one here. It’s just IRC on your mobile phone, but it started online. Smart mobs, the real-world conglomeration of people with a common interest, is obviously reflected in Internet forums and newsgroups.
Each generation is exponentially more visually-literate than the last. We are the last generation who will be told ‘not to waste the film in the camera’. Digital cameras, phone cams, digital video–they all empower people to make and manipulate images. What would Renoir make of a Fark Photoshop contest? The Internet (and associated technologies) has done for the painter and the photographer what movable type did for the writer–made it a popularist art form.
I have no doubt that my 9-month-old nephew will, in 15 years, be able to produce a film that convincingly stars him and his friends anywhere, at anytime. And he’ll distribute instantly, to everybody, on the Web (or whatever they call it).
But back to the original question: When facts are free and instantly accessable, what and how do you teach kids? How do you impart the value of knowledge in you mind? I’ve got no idea, because I think that value is declining.
Incidentally, the title is a play on Bill Joy’s controversial and compelling Wired article.
