A reader writes:
If Google can degrade memory, what about writing? Technology’s potential to weaken memory is a very old issue. Plato took it up in the Phaedrus, retelling an Egyptian myth about the ill effects of writing on memory:
At the Egyptian city of Naucratis, there was a famous old god, whose name was Theuth… his great discovery was the use of letters. Now in those days the god Thamus was the king of the whole country of Egypt… To him came Theuth and showed his inventions… when they came to letters, This, said Theuth, will make the Egyptians wiser and give them better memories; it is a specific both for the memory and for the wit. Thamus replied: O most ingenious Theuth, the parent or inventor of an art is not always the best judge of the utility or inutility of his own inventions to the users of them…. this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality.
But as we know, books are a wonderful aid to memory. Just because a poem is printed doesn’t mean you can forget about it; memorizing every damn poem or powerful speech you like would be tiresome. You need a way to store it away and access it only when you need it. In the sweep of history and technology, I suspect Google fills precisely the same role that writing did thousands of years ago.
The Dish 