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Having just got over a hard disk failure on my business pc, it got me to thinking about how vulnerable we all are when it comes to making notes. The proprietary back up system did work up to a point but I found that simple things like the automatic address book on MS Outlook needed re-populating and this slowed me down tremendously whilst I scrabbled around looking for them elsewhere.
There have been a number of articles in the media in recent years on the subject of human vulnerabilities when it comes to modern computer technology on the lines “Is Google making you stupid?” and “Is the Internet changing the way we think?” With respect to the first, I love the saying that was quoted by a well-known technology author: “I used to swim in the ocean of words but now I am like a guy on a jet ski skimming across the waves”.
“How true” I thought. I too find that I can no longer use a pen and paper to draft articles but I draft on the PC, drafting a sentence or two then cutting and pasting, looking things up on the Internet and generally skimming around. I think I would now be lost, well, at least for a while without my “technology dummies”. What I do know is that my notebooks are a mass of manuscript crossings out showing clearly how I now think (which is quite different to how I was brought up and did my exams!).
Now scientists are actually building on lots of anecdotal evidence to carry out some serious research. In the press only today (on the BBC website – what else?) I saw a fascinating article datelined 16 July by Jason Palmer reporting on a scientific study on “transactive” memory by Columbia University. Apparently, they have demonstrated that modern humans with long-term access to the Internet, have a poorer memory for facts that they know they will be found on the Internet than other information. This was demonstrated in a test of volunteer students where they retained a remarkable memory of which file information was stored rather than the information itself.
The term “transactive memory” has been coined by researchers to mean the Internet as an adjunct to our own memory. One of these researchers has said: “ I don’t think Google is making us stupid – we’re just changing the way that we’re remembering things…” Personally, I’m not sure this is the only explanation. Technology is incredibly powerful but human adaptability is probably just as powerful wherein lazy thinking is indulged and we would still revert back to more reliance on our own memory should we have to. Are we evolving as a result of this “transactive memory” extension, the jury is out on that one.
NASA picture of Asteroid Vesta
Turning to another item that caught my eye, was that the robotic spacecraft “Dawn” powered by an ion engine has just entered orbit round a large asteroid between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and is currently some 188 million miles from Earth (as the crow flies metaphorically speaking). This was a great feat of engineering given the delicacy of control required first just to get there, and then to orbit a relatively small and low-gravity celestial object. I got to thinking of the control systems that must be using tilt sensors, accelerometers to guide it and other electric motor driven systems that need to operate for years on its long journey far in excess of the direct route.
I always am amazed at some of the stories of the longevity of both some highly expensive engineered systems as well as the some more humble items off the shelf. Yet we can all relate to buying something complicated, taking it home only to find that it is faulty. I suppose this is a case of you only get what you pay for in the long run.
Au revoir for now.
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