Baldo by Hector D. Cantú and Carlos Castellanos for July 05, 2016

I know MY father’s cell phone number by heart… it’s my other contacts’ numbers I don’t know.

it has nothing to do with dumb or clever :)

Is Baldo eating a black apple from ‘Snow White’ or something?

And I suppose talking with a mouthful of apple makes you smarter?

Not normally remotely necessary.

I have a couple of family numbers committed to memory, but even that’s over the top. Numbers I use regularly are (a) on multiple phones, the main one of which is (b) backed up, and are © in most cases also written down in an address book with other contact information. And if I go away for any length of time I take hard copy of key contact numbers, which I keep separately.

I might find myself briefly inconvenienced if I, say, lost my phone while away from home, but that’s about the limit.

Gracie has a phone number?

yeah, I had to get a friend’s number from his mom’s cell phone last week

ben porterAn 18th century sailor with the improbable name of Will Mariner, recorded the comment of a Tongan talking chief (civil servant of that culture) after a demonstration of the advantages of writing. “Yes, I can see the advantages, but if it is not worth remembering, should it be preserved”

I haven’t a clue what my own cell phone # or home phone # is, or even my wife’s numbers. Aside from being stored on my phone, I have them all written down on a little card that I carry in my wallet at all times.Funny thing though, I can remember my original home phone number from when I was a kid ; the phone number of my first apartment in New York City ( from over 50 years ago ) ; and arcane ones, like my Army serial number.

Take away the devices and all you’re left with is ignorance.

Take away the devices and all you’re left with is ignorance.

There is now!

First phone. 1427W

A smart phone is just a tool. Any time you introduce a good, new tool, you have a diminishing of the skill that the tool has replaced. With the advent of the railroads, the need to travel long overland distances by foot, horseback, or horse drawn wagons decreased drastically, yet actual numbers of people traveling long distances. With the introduction of sewing machines, the need for clothing to be hand sewn had decreased while more people could get new clothing at a reasonable cost. That is the story of technology. Yes, the average ability to do things without the tools of our modern society has just about disappeared. But how many people would be alive today, or live as long, if it wasn’t for the tools of our world today. If all of our modern technology today completely failed, how many of us would be able to form a spear to successfully track down and kill an animal just be able to feed themselves with enough food to survive another day?Do sneer at our modern technology. Just recognise it as what it is: modern tools. Tolls can multiply good work, but they can also be misused. The more powerful the tool, the more dangerous it can be when misused

It is true, however. A recent book, “The Shallows”, reviews the history of how the human brain has evolved to receive and process information, from the invention of writing and the earliest alphabets to the present day. In the context of what we’ve learned about neuroscence, each new invention has physically rewired the human brain, so that areas of the brain supporting older skills that are no longer used regularly — the verbal memory needed in a preliterate society, for instance — actually atrophy. They may not be unable to be regained, but the loss is real enough. (The book is readable and compelling; check it out.)

Whether this is enough to qualify as “stupider”, well….

Not bothering to memorize things you do not need to memorize is a sign of intelligence, not stupidity.