Comments on: The Outsourced Brain http://donklephant.com/2007/11/01/the-outsourced-brain/ Big Teeth. Huge Ass. Surprisingly Reasonable. Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:59:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: bob in fla http://donklephant.com/2007/11/01/the-outsourced-brain/#comment-382636 bob in fla Sat, 03 Nov 2007 00:20:25 +0000 http://donklephant.com/2007/11/01/the-outsourced-brain/#comment-382636 David Brooks wrote a great article. I remember my college years of long ago & how time consuming it was just to find the sources I needed, much less taking & organizing notes, compiling bibliographies, & the numerous drafts I needed to do to come up with a finished paper. It seems amazing to me today that I had the energy to do any critical thinking to make my work worthwhile reading. Today I have time to do research in different subjects, have easy access to something related I may have seen months previously, & still have room on fewer bookshelves. I can edit on the fly. And I don't have to keep my mind overloaded with a bunch of facts that are simple to look up.. Wonderful stuff, progress! It is the difference between working hard & working smart. David Brooks wrote a great article. I remember my college years of long ago & how time consuming it was just to find the sources I needed, much less taking & organizing notes, compiling bibliographies, & the numerous drafts I needed to do to come up with a finished paper. It seems amazing to me today that I had the energy to do any critical thinking to make my work worthwhile reading. Today I have time to do research in different subjects, have easy access to something related I may have seen months previously, & still have room on fewer bookshelves. I can edit on the fly. And I don’t have to keep my mind overloaded with a bunch of facts that are simple to look up..

Wonderful stuff, progress! It is the difference between working hard & working smart.

]]> By: Rob http://donklephant.com/2007/11/01/the-outsourced-brain/#comment-382551 Rob Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:56:34 +0000 http://donklephant.com/2007/11/01/the-outsourced-brain/#comment-382551 DC is a game of musical chairs, but the music is powered by external interests with no such term limits. The number of candidates may change, but their purpose will remain the same. DC is a game of musical chairs, but the music is powered by external interests with no such term limits.

The number of candidates may change, but their purpose will remain the same.

]]> By: Jeremy http://donklephant.com/2007/11/01/the-outsourced-brain/#comment-382547 Jeremy Thu, 01 Nov 2007 20:43:49 +0000 http://donklephant.com/2007/11/01/the-outsourced-brain/#comment-382547 Cool topic Justin. My sense is that humanity has evolved to manipulate his environment, to invent solutions to everyday problems and to master the mundane so he/she may "free up" time to engage in more desirable endeavors, or at least more presumably desirable endeavors. All of this is relative of course, what one person believes is meaningful another believes is pointless but the simple matter of the fact is that humanity has always been striving to "take off the load" and reserve ones energy for more fulfilling tasks. It's a rat race of course, we as humanity tend to be that if only we could find a way to "fix this problem" or "fix that problem" that it will lead to the final solution, in which life is perfect, or things will finally be bearable. This will never occur though, we invent machines and gadgets to do the work and the analyzing man used to have to do all by himself, yet it dawns on us that inventing something that lives your life for you, for all the good and bad experiences of life defeats the purpose of life itself. There is no Utopian solution to life itself. We must sweat, feel pain and experience the drudgery of life, because we are beings. Being is hard work. We are always searching for ingenious solutions to our "problems" but the older we get, the more I think figure out that those "problems" are part of life. I personally think humanity is losing touch with what life is supposed to be about. We have all of these wonderfully entertaining gadgets around us, but are we any happier than we were 100,000 years ago? I certainly wouldn't trade my post-Paleolithic existence for a Paleolithic one, but I wonder sometimes whether humanity is losing touch with the whole point of life. I'm glad I have a computer that remembers my web browser bookmarks for me, but if I had to do without them I think I could manage. No technology will ever replace the need for human love and life experiences. On another note, I believe my access to such a vast amount of information whenever I want is absolutely revolutionary. Never have so many people, across so many socioeconomic classes had access to such a vast amount of information. I truly believe information is power. But I also believe that people mistake information for wisdom. It's not the information that holds the power, it's how you act on that information. That being said, there is nothing smarter than the human being and in some cases there is nothing more naive or greedy either. Cool topic Justin. My sense is that humanity has evolved to manipulate his environment, to invent solutions to everyday problems and to master the mundane so he/she may “free up” time to engage in more desirable endeavors, or at least more presumably desirable endeavors.

All of this is relative of course, what one person believes is meaningful another believes is pointless but the simple matter of the fact is that humanity has always been striving to “take off the load” and reserve ones energy for more fulfilling tasks.

It’s a rat race of course, we as humanity tend to be that if only we could find a way to “fix this problem” or “fix that problem” that it will lead to the final solution, in which life is perfect, or things will finally be bearable. This will never occur though, we invent machines and gadgets to do the work and the analyzing man used to have to do all by himself, yet it dawns on us that inventing something that lives your life for you, for all the good and bad experiences of life defeats the purpose of life itself.

There is no Utopian solution to life itself. We must sweat, feel pain and experience the drudgery of life, because we are beings. Being is hard work. We are always searching for ingenious solutions to our “problems” but the older we get, the more I think figure out that those “problems” are part of life. I personally think humanity is losing touch with what life is supposed to be about. We have all of these wonderfully entertaining gadgets around us, but are we any happier than we were 100,000 years ago?

I certainly wouldn’t trade my post-Paleolithic existence for a Paleolithic one, but I wonder sometimes whether humanity is losing touch with the whole point of life. I’m glad I have a computer that remembers my web browser bookmarks for me, but if I had to do without them I think I could manage. No technology will ever replace the need for human love and life experiences.

On another note, I believe my access to such a vast amount of information
whenever I want is absolutely revolutionary. Never have so many people, across so many socioeconomic classes had access to such a vast amount of information. I truly believe information is power. But I also believe that people mistake information for wisdom. It’s not the information that holds the power, it’s how you act on that information. That being said, there is nothing smarter than the human being and in some cases there is nothing more naive or greedy either.

]]>