Internet evolution
From: Mr Michael Lodge Sir: I strongly disagree with Paul Johnson's views on the decline in human intelligence and memory loss (And another thing, 1 July). In fact, the human mind adapts remarkably well to changing circum- stances. We should consider ourselves for- tunate to live in extraordinary times when, far from being stifled by a lack of knowl- edge, we are faced daily with an avalanche of information from books, television, newspapers and the Net.
Of course it may well be that today's children are unable to remember more than a few lines of the sort of poetry referred to by Mr Johnson, but ask almost any seven- or eight-year-old to recite the names, powers and evolutions of all 151 Pokemon characters, not to mention the characters and plots of the six most recent Disney movies, and most adults would be quite astounded at the facility with which children absorb this kind of information. However, even adults manage impressive feats of memory-recall on a daily basis, without really thinking about it. Most of us have to recall one home telephone num- ber, one or more work numbers, a cell- phone number, the work and home num- bers of family members, access codes for voice mail and ATM, not to mention user- names and passwords for the various web- sites that most of us use on a daily basis to provide us with e-mail and up-to-date information on portfolios, bank accounts and credit cards, as well as to order more books to provide us with yet more inform- ation.
It's all a matter of remembering what is relevant and discarding what is not rele- vant. Small wonder, then, that there is little room left in my head for 'The Burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna'.
Michael W. Lodge
Kingston, Jamaica
Previous page
