Thing #17

These 'worryists' as the Mr. Carr correctly identifies himself are way off base. Since the first article takes its cue from Mr. Carr's book I will address my rebuttal to his points. First, he makes the argument that because he and his friends can no longer focus on long novels like War and Peace that is the internet's fault. His only other real point is that technology has stifled the minds of other great thinkers like Nietzche.

To rebutt the first point is simple. I can tell you absolutely first-hand trying to get all these in before midnight that as we get older we get busier and cannot take the time to casually digest a novel in its due time. I'm sure that, like the rest of us, most of Mr. Carr's friends are of a similar age and demographic to him. So they are all getting older and busier as they experience success. Their success probably has something to do with the internet, but not their ability to focus on a long reading.

The second point is that as technology increased the great thinkers decreased. As demand for productivity soared, demand for deep thinking declined. The fallacy of this statement comes from our cultural history of aristocracy. The printing press may have led to a decline in intellectual giants dominating the scene like a Newton (though I would debate this, as I think would Albert Einstein), but it certainly led to a massive increase in collective intellectual advances that have led us to the point that the internet is viable. No collection of aristocratic geniuses, no matter how brilliant could have led us to the level of technical advancement the human race has achieved. It required the combined contributions of hundreds of thousands of educated, smart and productive minds. If they can't collectively realize that 'God is dead', then I think it is no great loss.