“Dave, my mind is going, I can feel it.”
// May 18th, 2009 // 6 Comments » // Science, Thoughts
What is the deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean?
How many calories in a mcdonalds big mac?
Or check this one out… What is the melting point of diamond?
My dear reader, you look at these questions and if you’re a Trivial Pursuit whiz, you may already know the answer. If not, I know exactly what pops to mind… Copy, paste, google.com.
“But J, there would still be several websites to peruse through, and many of them may be ballparking, lacking accuracy.” Go ahead, click the links above – They take you to a new project that has gone live test as of Friday, May 18th 2009 called Wolfram|Alpha. It’s not just a search engine or a complex scripting tool, it a “Computational Knowledge Engine” which doesn’t spider the web for answers, but computes based on what it already knows about, well, lots.
Sometimes the wording of the question will throw off the computer, but odds are that if you rephrase, you will glean some result. I’ve tossed a few goodies at it like the ones above and have had fun with its algebra functions, graphing sin curves and the such.
So, this leads me to a question I’d like to pose. How do services like this affect cognitive function? In my life, I find that if I’m watching a movie and can’t remember an Actor’s name, instead of sitting and trying to dig through the cobwebs in my head, I use IMDB. If there’s a fact I need to know, instead of going to the library and learning various other pieces of information while tracking down my answer, I ask my good friend, until recently 100% reliable Google… Instant gratification! (most of the time). Have a paper to write on some historical event? Wikipedia! My college professors indicated that they would burn any paper I turned in with them as a citation because of the unreliable nature of the information and its validity, but I knew some teachers that allowed it. I can honestly say that I don’t feel the need to memorize like I used to have to back in school. Maybe this is just because I’m not in an educational program at the moment, but part of me genuinely feels that these tools which are meant to provide information at the click of a button are affecting our ability (or perhaps, desire) to retain information. This is not based on scientific research, just my own observations and analysis.
Perhaps these services will allow people to take the information that IS available and use it in new and innovative ways? If the data is readily accessible, you don’t have to spend as much time finding out what someone else already has. This is how scientific research progresses, so we don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time a new issue is tackled. However, historical research is still important, so we understand where we “come from” socially and interpersonally.
At this time, I don’t consider these tools a problem as they stand. When machines start *thinking* for us, now there’s a potential problem. Oh wait… Right, now I don’t need to DO the math, I just use Wolfram Alpha.
I for one welcome the all knowing automotons with open arms. As long as I can still pull a trigger, I feel like I’ll be okay. These tools are going to continue being effective and useful. Hopefully the Internet never crashes. How will I find out who that chick on Lost from season 3 is? For now, here’s a little fun~
