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Does the Internet Make You Smarter?

online.wsj.com

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Re: Does the Internet Make You Smarter?

#3
Reading is an unnatural act; we are no more evolved to read books than we are to use computers.

That assertion caused me to frantically control-W. In how many ways is it, alone, bankrupt? What are we "evolved to" do? How unnatural were the pre-Sumerians? Why do we gladly immerse ourselves in the unknown seeking, as we are so inclined to do, new patterns?

Clay Shirky is the amateur he starts out with complaints about.