Friday, March 14, 2008

Do you see a Pattern?

When the art of 'Writing' was first being introduced in the Greek Culture, the Greek Orators decided that it was going to be the end of all intelligent thinking. They claimed that if you could write down things which you otherwise had to memorise, your brain was not going to be utilised anymore. They advised their kids not to write as writing reduced thier ability to memorise.
Much later when Bell invented the telephone, the people then declared, that this technology will prevent people from having to write letters. And they will hence be unable to appreciate the thrill and the beauty of writing. They advised their kids to not use the telephone, but to write long letters the conventional way.
When Calculators were invented people concluded that calculators will reduce the ability of the brain to calculate. Teachers and parents frowned at their kids rushing to use the calculator even for the simplest of arithmatic problems.
When the Television was becoming a household commodity, people tagged it the idiot box. Because young kids remained glued to it, and did not pertain to any physical exercise for entatainment. They advised their kids to reduce TV watching.
When Google and Wikipedia , today provide for everybody free and copius amounts of information, people say that such ease of availability of information has made young kids forget the charm of searching of information in a library. Governments (Like China) have tried to ban their people from having access to google and wikipedia because there is simply too much information, and that is dangerous. In fact one lecturer in UK has demanded that her students be banned from using Google or Wikipedia as references for their research work.
Guess what will happen when the new Google Goggles will be launched. A pair of intelligent glasses that will store information about all that you see, and when you want to find that key bunch you have lost, will automatically search and display the image of the location of your keys!
"What you dont have to remember where you left your keys? And Google Goggles will do that for you ? That will make you more lazy and indisciplined"
Do you see a pattern?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Yes you are right.

Any new technology will be welcomed with a "no" first. This is mainly because people are afraid of "changes" in their lives. Gradually they accept new technologies till they realise that they cannot live without it.

Hari said...

Good information In future there will be no Absentminded Professor. and good market for the gadget.