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hough books were created to serve a purpose that same purpose can often be served by better means while hillis considered the book to be a fine and admirable device he imagined that clay tablets and scrolls of papyrus in their time had charms of their own 29 wired magazine editor kevin kelly believed that the idea that the book is the apex of human culture should be resisted 7 and birkerts differentiated online reading from literary reading stating that in the latter the reader is directed within themselves and enters an environment that is nothing at all like the open ended information zone that is cyberspace in which he feels psychologically fragmented 27 57 coping with abundance edit abundance of books makes men less studious hieronimo squarciafico a 15th century venetian editor bemoaning the printing press 58 59 several critics theorized about the effects of the shift from scarcity to abundance of written material in the media as a result of the technologies introduced by the internet this shift was examined for its potential to lead individuals to a superficial comprehension of many subjects rather than a deep comprehension of just a few subjects according to shirky an individual s ability to concentrate had been facilitated by the relatively empty environment which had ceased to exist when the wide availability of the web proliferated new media although shirky acknowledged that the unprecedented quantity of written material available on the web might occasion a sacrifice of the cultural importance of many works he believed that the solution was to help make the sacrifice worth it 35 in direct contrast sven birkerts argued that some deep comprehension of our inheritance was essential and called for some consensus vision among those shapers of what our society and culture might be shaped toward warning against allowing the commercial marketplace to dictate the future standing of traditionally important cultural works 60 while carr found solace in shirky s conceit that new forms of expression might emerge to suit the internet he considered this conceit to be one of faith rather than reason 25 in a later response shirky continued to expound upon his theme that technologies that make writing abundant always require new social structures to accompany them explaining that gutenberg s printing press led to an abundance of cheap books which were met by a host of inventions large and small such as the separation of fiction from non fiction the recognition of talents the listing of concepts by indexes and the practice of noting editions 55 impact of the web on memory retention edit as a result of the vast stores of information made accessible on the web approximately one hundred critics pointed to a decrease in the desire to recall certain types of information indicating they believed a change in the process of recalling information as well as the types of information that are recalled according to ben worthen a wall street journal business technology blogger the growing importance placed on the ability to access information instead of the capacity to recall information straight from memory would in the long term change the type of job skills that companies who are hiring new employees would find valuable due to an increased reliance on the internet worthen speculated that before long the guy who remembers every fact about a topic may not be as valuable as the guy who knows how to find all of these facts and many others 41 61 evan ratliff of salon com wondered if the usage of gadgets to recall phone numbers as well as geographical and historical information had the effect of releasing certain cognitive resources that in turn strengthened other aspects of cognition drawing parallels with transactive memory a process whereby people remember things in relationships and groups ratliff mused that perhaps the web was like a spouse who is around all the time with a particular knack for factual memory of all varieties 27 far from conclusive these ruminations left the web s impact on memory retention an open question 27 themes and motifs edit effect of technology on the brain s neural circuitry edit a model 1878 of the malling hansen writing ball which nietzsche began using in 1882 when his poor eyesight made it difficult for him to write by hand 62 63 in the essay carr introduces the discussion of the scientific support for the idea that the brain s neural circuitry can be rewired with an example in which philosopher friedrich nietzsche is said to have been influenced by technology according to german scholar friedrich a kittler in his book gramophone film typewriter nietzsche s writing style became more aphoristic after he started using a typewriter nietzsche began using a malling hansen writing ball because of his failing eyesight which had disabled his ability to write by hand 23 64 the idea that nietzsche s writing style had changed for better or worse when he adopted the typewriter was disputed by several critics kevin kelly and scott esposito each offered alternate explanations for the apparent changes 29 37 65 esposito believed that the brain is so huge and amazing and enormously complex that it s far far off base to think that a few years of internet media or the acquisition of a typewriter can fundamentally rewire it 37 in a response to esposito s point neuroscientist james olds stated that recent brain research demonstrated that it was pretty clear that the adult brain can re wire on the fly in the new york times it was reported that several scientists believed that it was certainly plausible that the brain s neural circuitry may be shaped differently by regular internet usage compared with the reading of printed works 6 although there was a consensus in the scientific community about how it was possible for the brain s neural circuitry to change through experience the potential effect of web technologies on the brain s neural circuitry was unknown 31 33 on the topic of the internet s effect on reading skills guinevere f eden director of the center for the study of learning at georgetown university remarked that the question was whether or not the internet changed the brain in a way that was beneficial to an individual 6 carr believed that the effect of the internet on cognition was detrimental weakening the ability to concentrate and contemplate olds cited the potential benefits of computer software that specifically targets learning disabilities stating that among some neuroscientists there was a belief that neuroplasticity based software was beneficial in improving receptive language disorders 31 olds mentioned neuroscientist michael merzenich who had formed several companies with his peers in which neuroplasticity based computer programs had been developed to improve the cognitive functioning of kids adults and the elderly 31 66 in 1996 merzenich and his peers had started a company called scientific learning in which neuroplastic research had been used to develop a computer training program called fast forword that offered seven brain exercises that improved language impairments and learning disabilities in children 67 feedback on fast forword showed that these brain exercises even had benefits for autistic children an unexpected spillover effect that merzenich has attempted to harness by developing a modification of fast forword specifically designed for autism 68 at a subsequent company that merzenich started called posit science fast forword like brain exercises and other techniques were developed with the aim of sharpening the brains of elderly people by retaining the plasticity of their brains 69 hal in 2001 a space odyssey edit in stanley kubrick s 1968 science fiction film 2001 a space odyssey astronaut david bowman slowly disassembles the mind of an artificial intelligence named hal by sequentially unplugging its memory banks carr likened the emotions of despair expressed by hal as its mind is disassembled to his own at the time cognitive difficulties in engaging with long texts 2 he felt as if someone was tinkering with his brain remapping the neural circuitry reprogramming the memory 24 hal had also been used as a metaphor for the ultimate search engine in a pbs interview with google co founder sergey brin as noted in carr s book the big switch and also brin s ted talk brin was comparing google s ambitions of building an artificial intelligence to hal while dismissing the possibility that a bug like the one that led hal to murder the occupants of the fictional spacecraft discovery one could occur in a google based artificial intelligence 23 70 71 carr observed in his essay that throughout history technological advances have often necessitated new metaphors such as the mechanical clock engendering the simile like clockwork and the age of the computer engendering the simile like computers carr concluded his essay with an explanation as to why he believed hal was an appropriate metaphor for his essay s argument he observed that hal showed genuine emotion as his mind was disassembled while throughout the film the humans onboard the space station appeared to be automatons thinking and acting as if they were following the steps of an algorithm carr believed that the film s prophetic message was that as individuals increasingly rely on computers for an understanding of their world their intelligence may become more machinelike than human 2 24 developing view of how internet use affects cognition edit the brain is very specialized in its circuitry and if you repeat mental tasks over and over it will strengthen certain neural circuits and ignore others gary small a professor at ucla s semel institute for neuroscience and human behaviour 72 after the publication of carr s essay a developing view unfolded in the media as sociological and neurological studies surfaced that were relevant to determining the cognitive impact of regular internet usage challenges to carr s argument were made frequently as the two most outspoken detractors of electronic media carr and birkerts were both appealed to by kevin kelly to each formulate a more precise definition of the faults they perceived regarding electronic media so that their beliefs could be scientifically verified 73 while carr firmly believed that his skepticism about the internet s benefits to cognition was warranted 25 he cautioned in both his essay and his book the big switch that long term psychological and neurological studies were required to definitively ascertain how cognition develops under the influence of the internet 3 24 74 scholars at university college london conducted a study titled information behaviour of the researcher of the future the results of which suggested that students research habits tended towards skimming and scanning rather than in depth reading 75 the study provoked serious reflection among educators about the implications for educational instruction 76 in october 2008 new insights into the effect of internet usage on cognition were gleaned from the results reported in a press release 77 of a study conducted by ucla s memory and aging research center that had tested two groups of people between the ages of 55 and 76 years old only one group of which were experienced web users while they had read books or performed assigned search tasks their brain activity had been monitored with functional mri scans which revealed that both reading and web search utilize the same language reading memory and visual regions of the brain however it was discovered that those searching the web stimulated additional decision making and complex reasoning regions of the brain with a two fold increase in these regions in experienced web users compared with inexperienced web users 78 79 80 81 gary small the director of the ucla center and lead investigator of the ucla study concurrently released the book ibrain surviving the technological alteration of the modern mind co authored with gigi vorgan with the press release while one set of critics and bloggers used the ucla study to dismiss the argument raised in carr s essay 82 83 another set took a closer look at the conclusions that could be drawn from the study concerning the effects of internet usage 84 among the reflections concerning the possible interpretations of the ucla study were whether greater breadth of brain activity while using the internet in comparison with reading a book improved or impaired the quality of a reading session and whether the decision making and complex reasoning skills that are apparently involved in internet search according to the study suggest a high quality of thought or simply the use of puzzle solving skills 85 86 thomas claburn in informationweek observed that the study s findings regarding the cognitive impact of regular internet usage were inconclusive and stated that it will take time before it s clear whether we should mourn the old ways celebrate the new or learn to stop worrying and love the net 5 see also edit bicameral mentality captology decade of the mind information grazing four arguments for the elimination of television neurotechnology the brain that changes itself a 2007 book on neuroplasticity by norman doidge psychological effects of internet use references edit nicholas carr june 12 2008 pages and pages rough type retrieved november 1 2008 1 2 3 4 5 6 thompson bill june 17 2008 changing the way we think bbc news 1 2 3 4 johnson steve june 18 2008 read this if you re easily distracted lately chicago tribune archived from the original on july 18 2011 retrieved february 10 2009 aaronovitch david august 13 2008 the internet shrinks your brain what rubbish the times retrieved december 1 2008 1 2 thomas claburn october 15 2008 is google making us smarter ucla researchers report that searching the internet may help improve brain function informationweek archived from the original on october 27 2008 retrieved november 1 2008 1 2 3 motoko rich july 27 2008 literacy debate online r u really reading the new york times retrieved november 1 2008 1 2 kelly kevin july 25 2008 the fate of the book and a question for sven birkerts britannica blog originally posted at kelly s blog the technium archived from the original on january 9 2020 retrieved january 7 2018 1 2 bernard sharratt december 18 1994 are there books in our future the new york times retrieved november 1 2008 1 2 john naughton june 22 2008 i google therefore i am losing the ability to think the observer retrieved october 20 2008 birkerts 1994 pp 17 20 1 2 birkerts 1994 pp 146 149 john walsh and kate burt september 14 2008 can intelligent literature survive in the digital age the independent retrieved october 20 2008 birkerts 1994 pp 138 139 william leith march 28 2008 we were never meant to read the daily telegraph archived from the original on march 25 2008 retrieved november 1 2008 wolf 2007 p 17 harvnb error multiple targets 3 citerefwolf2007 help guy dammann march 28 2008 stumbling over books the daily tel...