"I may be paranoid, but no android."

A response to "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" or an opinion anyway.

Initially i read this and thought, this is profound in many ways. What a discussion piece. I want to know more. So.. i googled Nicholas Carr, to get more information.. Funny, right?

The term "wired", to describe those who are connected to the Internet, seems a bit light at this point. We are downright intravenously tethered to all forms and facets of the web, and its very threads bind us all. We are a generation of human devices. So many of our human relationships rely on the availability our internet connectivity.

As I am reading this article and my computer has made no less than 3 suggestions to me. "Update Itunes to version 8.2?"..It's hardly a question. "Safari 4 update, now please." "Windows update or I promise future repercussions.. Scan me or succumb to a horrible virus death..critical system error..thank you." HAL, no. Distraction, yes. My computer looking out for my best interest is hardly "I, Robot" here.

I respect how he points out throughout time, the great minds and tools they both dismissed as downfalls of modern man and cherished as enlightened human achievement. His view on Google however, was a bit grim. A lot of heavy smoke over little a search engine. But then again, it isnt so little. I mean you can Google just about anything. Literally. Instantaneous results. Surprisingly reliable. It refines your own searches. The librarian in a limitless library.

However when the article begins to detail Google's interest in next generation Artificial Intelligence, and the quarry of knowledge available if you were directly linked to a new age system, one cant help but conjure all those visions of chaos in science fiction. Sky NET, HAL, The Matrix. Could this be a 20th century cyber-nightmare in it's conception? If Carr is a worrywart, I'm a feverish hypochondriac. The Googleplex. Images of the Tower of Babel flood my head. John Conner on a cyber-war torn future scape, hellbent on the salvation of humanity over machines. Art imitating life, of life imitating art. Maybe just slightly alarmist.

When Carr mentions himself the nostalgist, I think to myself "could that be me?" Well, hardly. I find my weather on my ipod every morning, and well as my current CNN news. Email..check. Stocks..check. Hell, a Carb Counter..we have an app for that. So, perpetual nostalgist, hardly. Distracted, maybe. I find myself re-reading pages of books when i cant acquire the "information" I feel I need. I re-read 10 pages of Cormac McCarthy's "Blood Meridian" so many times, I left the book for some time. He literally painted so much detail over the storyline, i was frustrated at the prose and lavish description, I just wanted the bones. Because i couldn't find the plot line in a headline. Oh, Where is my mind? Point, click. Instant. Just like the board room coffee. Isnt it fitting for our "fast, now and alot of it culture"?

As far as what type of new culture will emerge in the future from all this, who can be sure. We are already a culture of advertisement and entertainment. Maybe just more quick, and to the throat. I don't think all this information makes us stupid, I think its on the contrary. But I do fear all this ease of access. Sometimes it seems like we have all this readily available open communication, and no one has anything important to say. Hopefully, that's what will emerge in the future. Open discussion, understanding, a bit of civility. I can only hope that as we stray further into the digital universe we don't loose the self realization. In a place of avatars and profiles, who are we truly? Identity is a leisure. But hey, let's not shit ourselves. We can barely ask ourselves as people, who deserves to be healthy. Maybe Google has the answer, I'm feeling lucky.