Google = Stupid people (Blog #5)

In the article, Is Google making us Stupid?" something that really stood out to me was the idea that Google wants to make an artificial human that can be hooked up to our brain. "It's like having a super computer in your brain and you will be better off" is something that Sergey Brin stated in the article. As I said in a pervious blog, the idea of a "Terminator" and the IRobot "Helperbot" might actually become a reality in a few years. If we keep teaching computers to think for themselves and then hook it up to our brains, this could be bad news for everyone.

Before Google, people had to actually go a look for the answers and stretch their mind. It taught our brain how to problem solve in a way. Now with Google, everything is right there and involves little to no effort in order to find or solve a problem. The computer has the ability to shape the way our brains function and think as stated in the article. People are having a hard time focusing and concentrating on a single thing or task. Bruce Friedman stated in the article, "Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it." Reading that I see how much I also have trouble focusing at times. For example, If it's really nice outside, I can't seem to focus on my work all I want to do is go outside or hangout with friends.

In an article on a British news cite, written by Fiona Macre, interviewed Lady Greenfield, a British scientist who specialty is physiology of the brain, she states that, "Using search engines to find facts may hinder our ability to learn, while computer games in which it is always possible to start again, may make us more reckless." "However, limiting computer use may just make it even more appealing."

I agree with Lady Greenfield in that we can't learn things by just looking it up on a search engine, such as Google. I remember that some research projects in High School I did, I had to use Google but then after the project was over I couldn't remember at all what it was I looked up.

The internet has made us into a much lazier thinking population in which we can't simply go to the library to find an answer so we can learn something. Instead we open up our web browser and and type in www.google.com and search for our problem and there it is. Saving us hours of searching in the library or figuring it out another way. Google AND the Internet are making us all think a different way then say our grandparents did when they didn't have any computers. This is not a good step for humankind. 

Macrae, Fiona . "Facebook and internet 'can re-wire your brain and shorten attention span' | Mail Online." Home | Mail Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2012. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1312119/Facebook-internet-wire-brain-shorten-attention-span.html>.