Information is one thing,but using it is quite another.
While I was on a school strategic plan team one time, a teacher who wanted all laptops, no books, said, "Kids don't need to know stuff anymore. All they need is access to the Internet." Same woman who admitted they were trying to turn kids against their parents. I asked how they were to evaluate what they read on the Internet, She had no answer, it had not even been under consideration in her brain. That stuff, that is in the human brain, those liberals teachings, are what lead one to evaluate and process random information in a rational way. Think of the super brainiacs who have no common sense at all. You can dump all the facts in the world into a brain, but without experience and philosophy, what do they do with it all? And what is the limit of the human brain, when they make the predictions of how many a computer can replace?
I think there is a great danger in going all digital. Rand showed in "Anthem" what happened when books were not available to the population. If there was an electro magnetic attack, who would be left with the stuff in their heads to start again? I still order books, not online nor electronic books. We already know that the schools are being dumbed down with Common Core, so the goal is not super smart citizens, obviously. Aren't we going to reach some kind of limit as far as how many smart phones can be in operation at once at some point, anyway? He who controls the programming will control your mind, It is already bad enough with the brainwashing going on with the human mind. I will not grieve the demise of the public school system, but neither do I think we have an alternative that is free of control factors.

I'm a technology nut, but I still like the tactile sensation of a physical book in my hands. I get most of my books used for little more than the cost of shipping. I laugh when I see the E-versions of those books selling for $18 or more when I just got the hardcover in excellent condition shipped for less than a total of four bucks.

I think I paid $3.50 for my copy of AS, shipped.

It's a great time to be a reader!

Gubmint can keep up because it can afford networks of more powerful computers than we can. Its Utah Data Center is just the tip of the iceberg. They are a meglomaniacal and insatiable entity.

+1 EitherOr

Good points jconne.

Wow, not exactly a positive group today are we? :)
I mean, sure the invention of television wiped out kid's attentions spans (because everyone under the age of 12 always payed attention in class before the 1950s). And listening to the the phonograph instead of participating in perpetually insightful 19th-century conversation turned everyone into mindless zombies. Let's not forget that rascal Guttenberg and his damned printing press, allowing kids to have their own copies of books so they didn't ever have to take notes or listen to the teacher in class.

Human nature is human nature. Those who want to learn, or have the capacity to, will. As for public school - it depends whether you view it as an opportunity for education or a center for indoctrination.

Re: Seekero1,

You have touched on a point that futurists like the author often miss. The human element in these matters is an all important one. I can remember predictions in the 1960" of flying cars and many other wondrous things by the late 1980's, I've yet to see some of these things. Frankly, the authors belief that all poverty will be gone by 2040 is probably a pipe dream, the reason there is such poverty is twofold. many of the people just don't want to make the necessary effort to raise themselves out of poverty and second that many governments are simply so corrupt that change will come very slowly if at all. While technology may change at a lightning speed, sadly the human condition seldom does.

Fred Speckmann
commonsenseforamericans@yahoo.com

I did say that lol. Technically, "at least governments aren't all in a conspiracy with each other"

I think Moore may have omitted one thing from his calculations, the human element. I have seen the digital age in teaching and well, it just doesn't work well. No laptop can take the place of a competent teacher. I'm not sure teaching like and other development item will ever be cost effective on all fronts. Some will be better than others at certain things forever. So if anything computers may help those that test well, get sorted into the appropriate classes. As for objective thinking, I believe it will only get you fired outside of academic circles.. Remember there isn't much difference between a mob and democracy. The odd man out always looses.

Considering that cell phones, while providing one of the greatest advances in communications in the past century, have also proven excellent at knocking 20 points off users' IQs, I hate to think of what a cell phone with the speculated capacity might do.

One might argue: who needs a brain when one has a computer (or to use the example of countless retail clerks: who needs a brain when you have a phone to someone who has one)? The question of course is what is one supposed to do when the batteries go dead or no one answers the phone.

How many of you remember the days prior to the invention of the home computer? Remember when computers were going to do everything for us, leaving us to do better things with our time? What became of that vision?

As exciting and promising as this is (bringing a vast library of information to the common man), I dred the lack of human contact and interface. We no longer talk to one another, face to face. Learning encompasses also the interaction with others.

Maybe my hopes are high, but I think this may be the dark before Dawn. The world is growing at such a fast rate that the government can't keep up, people will start seeing the government does more bad than good.

It's a tough call, at least governments aren't all in a conspiracy with each other. That could play to our advantage. Seeing people in another country and being able to talk to them breaks a lot of the authority government has in justifying its actions.

I think more the first than the second. The government just can't keep up, unless it denies the technology to it's citizens. Maybe a bigger problem.