Does Modern Technology Make Us Less Intelligent?

[Mart30000]

There is scarcity, especially of time. Even if technology makes up less intelligent in some ways, it can sometimes allow other areas of our intelligence to develop that couldn't otherwise develop with what has been "freed up" or "released." I might be less good at arithmetic because of the calculator, but I used my time to develop my "higher math" skills.

 

[Thief]

We end up using our limited memory on other things so we gain more if our cell phones are memorizing phone numbers for us for example.

I used to hear we use only ten% of what our brains can do.

More recent discussion leans to sensory input as we try to deal with all the input.

Maybe we were born to dealing with the task at hand....
and the high tech is more than distraction.

Maybe we are overloading while at the same time lacking useful development.

Monkeys with keyboards.

 

[InformedIgnorance]

Depends on how one defines intelligence. Simple information access does not mean we are more intelligent, or more clever, or more wise. Certainly there are additional capabilities that might address such issues, such as sorting algorithms, manipulation processes, representation formats, decision making heuristics and so forth.

It also depends on whether or not you believe that technological augmentation of intelligence is valid - can we assert that technology (in particular information processing technologies) are a part of 'us'. I believe currently the two are separate, but we are not far from a stage where the ubiquity of computing and the facilitation of such technology into our life styles (including use of decision making heuristics to help inform our analysis etc) will reach such a point as to make it more difficult to strictly differentiate the two (particularly if we go down the road of neural interfaces) that we will adapt an organic-synthetic symbiotic relationship with such technologies.

 

[idea]

The more you know, the more you know you don't know.

We feel less intelligent, but we know more.

We're more connected, citizens of the world, less trapped in small bubbles which is a good thing.

 

[Mock Turtle]

So what do you think, do you think that things like computers, smart phones, ipads, etc. make us less intelligent? Does having all these things also make us lazier?
When I was a teen, if you wanted information you had to go to the library and look at their reference books to look up information. Now all we have to do is type something into our search engines to get any information. It was a lot harder to write a term paper on a type writer than it is on a computer where you can fix your mistakes much easier.

What do you think?

A decade has passed and I think AI (just that which exists now besides what is to come) has already become an issue as to answering this question, apart from much else. Which I will probably assess as being yes, modern technology does tend to make us less intelligent, certainly more lazy, and perhaps less inquisitive when easy answers (even if wrong) are so more readily available now.

 

[PureX]

So what do you think, do you think that things like computers, smart phones, ipads, etc. make us less intelligent? Does having all these things also make us lazier?
When I was a teen, if you wanted information you had to go to the library and look at their reference books to look up information. Now all we have to do is type something into our search engines to get any information. It was a lot harder to write a term paper on a type writer than it is on a computer where you can fix your mistakes much easier.

What do you think?

I think these technologies help the willfully ignorant to stay willfully ignorant, and the actively curios to become more informed. Technology is aiding and abetting our social intellectual extremes.

 

[Brickjectivity]

What do you think?

If information technology persists maybe we will become symbiotic with it as we have done with textiles.

 

[Audie]

Pretty dumb to text while riding a bike

 

[PureX]

Technology mostly only makes humans more capable, not more intelligent.