5 ms·

It's definitely a hypothesis I'd like to see tested, because I do belive the increasing shallowness and leaning on technology as a crutch is a real phenomenon i

It's definitely a hypothesis I'd like to see tested, because I do belive the increasing shallowness and leaning on technology as a crutch is a real phenomenon in Western society. A good test might be how people fare when stripped of their technology and conveniences, for some definitions of faring and technology. Testing this ethically might be tough, though.

jjoonathan 12y ago
I'm at a loss for how your proposed test actually tests anything of relevance to modern society which is built explicitly on the notion that groups of interdependent specialists greatly outperform similarly sized groups of independent generalists (see: Adam Smith and his pin factory). Sure, you could concoct a survivalist rebuild-the-world scenario in which the tables would turn, but you could play the same game for any other specialization in existence ("generalist" becomes just another type of specialist when time constraints are taken into account). I would choose a society where everyone knew how to use google, wikipedia, and google scholar over one where every individual could list off the pressure, temperature, and catalyst of the Haber process any day of the week.
ef4 12y ago
> leaning on technology as a crutch... Yeah, kids these days with their "clothing" and "language" and "fire" have it so soft. Clearly we should worry about how well they would fare without those things.
- WhoBeI 12y ago
  Without fire you need to huddle together to keep warm. That becomes interesting when there are no clothes involved. Language becomes unnecessary at that point. :)
WhoBeI 12y ago
Stripped of modern technology you mean? I imagine they would just visit the library.
- ogrerut 12y ago
  Library is modern technnology
- knicholes 12y ago
  I don't see why we still have libraries.
  - walterbell 12y ago
    Same reason we have search engines. Centralized, low-latency access to a larger dataset than a single person can afford to buy or license. Try searching at http://books.google.com http://books.google.com and see the difference in content quality between the "web" and "books".

jjoonathan 12y ago

I'm at a loss for how your proposed test actually tests anything of relevance to modern society which is built explicitly on the notion that groups of interdependent specialists greatly outperform similarly sized groups of independent generalists (see: Adam Smith and his pin factory). Sure, you could concoct a survivalist rebuild-the-world scenario in which the tables would turn, but you could play the same game for any other specialization in existence ("generalist" becomes just another type of specialist when time constraints are taken into account). I would choose a society where everyone knew how to use google, wikipedia, and google scholar over one where every individual could list off the pressure, temperature, and catalyst of the Haber process any day of the week.

ef4 12y ago

> leaning on technology as a crutch... Yeah, kids these days with their "clothing" and "language" and "fire" have it so soft. Clearly we should worry about how well they would fare without those things.

WhoBeI 12y ago
Without fire you need to huddle together to keep warm. That becomes interesting when there are no clothes involved. Language becomes unnecessary at that point. :)

WhoBeI 12y ago

Stripped of modern technology you mean? I imagine they would just visit the library.

ogrerut 12y ago
Library is modern technnology
knicholes 12y ago
I don't see why we still have libraries.
- walterbell 12y ago
  Same reason we have search engines. Centralized, low-latency access to a larger dataset than a single person can afford to buy or license. Try searching at http://books.google.com http://books.google.com and see the difference in content quality between the "web" and "books".