Poll of the Day > the phones keep getting smarter.... why don't we?

(+) Yeah! (+)

makes you think

---

back in my day

phones were books

---

What's the deal with cell phones getting smarter?

Also, these pretzels are making me thirsty.

---

They have to because they keep making people stupid.

---

I'm still waiting for the NetNavis from Megaman Battle Network.
---

I'm still smarter than my phone. What's your problem?

---

SunWuKung420 posted...

I'm still smarter than my phone.

whats 69*420

---

Things don't happen just because. They happen because there's a need for them to happen. With phones, and technology in general getting smarter, there's less and less a need for us to be smart.

---

when I was a kid the greatest technological advancement was pretzels. Not even soft ones. Little hard pretzels in a bag.

And we were grateful!

---

OniRonin posted...

whats 69*420

28980

---

Judgmenl posted...

28980

wrong

---

It's been scientifically proven that humans tend to grow stupider whenever we invent something to do the thinking for us. Our brains are lazy as fuck, and will do almost anything to avoid having to work.

When we invented writing, the ability to remember and pass on stories orally atrophied, because we didn't need it any more. Even today, cultures which are mostly illiterate tend to have a much better memory for things than ones where everyone can just look things up in books.

When we invented easily available calculators that could do complex math, there was a significant drop-off in people's ability to do more complicated math in their head (or via written workings). Basically, your brain knows you have your calculator as a crutch, so it stops caring.

The moment we added memory functions to phones and cell phones, our ability to actually remember people's phone numbers via repetition atrophied, because we didn't need it any more.

With the advent of the Internet, and the ability to look up pretty much anything you could ever want to know, ever, at a moment's notice, people's ability to recall details in general is getting weaker, because most people no longer need to remember things. The ability to utilize information has become more important than the ability to retain it.

Basically, people aren't getting smarter BECAUSE we keep making our phones smarter.

Eventually, we're pretty much aiming for the transhumanist future where we've all got smart AI chips in our heads that do most of our thinking and remembering for us.

The problem - and we can already see this now when people lose their phones or have to replace them - is that people who've spent their entire lives leaning on technology tend to be left completely helpless to do anything if they lose that crutch.
---

ParanoidObsessive posted...

It's been scientifically proven that humans tend to grow stupider whenever we invent something to do the thinking for us. Our brains are lazy as fuck, and will do almost anything to avoid having to work.

When we invented writing, the ability to remember and pass on stories orally atrophied, because we didn't need it any more. Even today, cultures which are mostly illiterate tend to have a much better memory for things than ones where everyone can just look things up in books.

When we invented easily available calculators that could do complex math, there was a significant drop-off in people's ability to do more complicated math in their head (or via written workings). Basically, your brain knows you have your calculator as a crutch, so it stops caring.

The moment we added memory functions to phones and cell phones, our ability to actually remember people's phone numbers via repetition atrophied, because we didn't need it any more.

With the advent of the Internet, and the ability to look up pretty much anything you could ever want to know, ever, at a moment's notice, people's ability to recall details in general is getting weaker, because most people no longer need to remember things. The ability to utilize information has become more important than the ability to retain it.

Basically, people aren't getting smarter BECAUSE we keep making our phones smarter.

Eventually, we're pretty much aiming for the transhumanist future where we've all got smart AI chips in our heads that do most of our thinking and remembering for us.

The problem - and we can already see this now when people lose their phones or have to replace them - is that people who've spent their entire lives leaning on technology tend to be left completely helpless to do anything if they lose that crutch.

thats crazy

---