I met Kasper, one of my buddies from the Europe in the World programme, at a bar in Copenhagen last night. It turned into a really good night. He brought his wife, Lone, and I convinced Svetlana, one of the coders from work, to come with to the pub. We got into a deep drunken conversation about evolution, and agreed on something I hadn't really thought about before that night. We netheads have evolved in a subtle but really basic way- we've learned to use our minds primarily as an analytical tool rather than a data storage tool, probably for the first time in the history of the species. This has happened in the last five years, which is pretty quick by evolutionary standards.
Think of it this way. Before the Internet, people used their minds to gather a lot of information, compare that information to their current conditions, and then leverage the differences to their advantage.
Now, our problem is that we have too much information- it's the old cliche of trying to take a few sips of water from a fire hose. What that's done to us is that we have no time or capacity to internalize all the information we get. We no longer use our brains as data storage devices, at least not primarily. I remember very little. I'm terrible at names and dates. But that's because I know I can store all this data somewhere else and concentrate on assessing which names and dates are important. Which information is likely to be correct and useful. I don't need to know the information as long as I know where to look it up quickly and how it relates to other information I'm aware of. This gives me more time and headspace to analyze all the data and leverage it for something useful (though granted, I can't remember my own phone number any more). I think that's a pretty basic change in the way we appreciate information, and the way we gather and use it.
Errgh, can't sleep again. A friend I met on tribenet actually sent me a lullaby last week, because I'm always complaining about the sleep dep. It was a pretty cool thing to do (and it sounds nice). Thanks Deborah!
Posted by case at February 22, 2004 03:01 AM