Reading/Discussion Questions for
Carr’s Is Google Making Us Stupid (633-641)
Answer TWO of
the following…
1. Why does Carr
begin and end his essay with the science-fiction film, 2001: A Space Odyssey? How
does this film become a kind of metaphor for the ideas in his essay?
2. What does Carr
mean when he writes, “as we use what the sociologist Daniel Bell has called our
“intellectual technologies”…we inevitably begin to take on the qualities of
those technologies” (637)? How have our
ways of thinking, and indeed, even our metaphors, changed as a result of these
technologies? Consider also how previous
technologies have changed our thinking, according to the essay.
3. This is also
an essay about ethics, and Carr claims that “The Net’s intellectual ethic
remains obscure” (638). If the internet
is a philosophy or a religion—and Google is its “high church”—what is the
doctrine or creed of this religion/philosophy?
Is it one that is ethically sound?
Is it one that we—or you—should believe in?
4. Write a short, one-paragraph satire developing the same idea as Carr's essay. How can you make us see his general concern/thesis through humor and irony? What is it he's really worried about?
Q.1
ReplyDeleteCarr begins with 2001 A Space Odyssey quote “…my mind is going….” And then agrees with it. Of course the resin Carrs memory fades wouldn’t be the same as the robots. Carr’s brain slips because the internet has caused him to change his way of reading. As he said, he used to be able to read a book and not lose interest but now (since he can usually click on another link to read else where) he tends to leave the book or long essay alone and finds something shorter and faster to read.
He ends stating that the most human creature in 2001 is the machine. For which he fears might happen to humanity today.
Q.4 Long ago in the times before the great world wide web (other wise known as internet). There was this thing called books. Books did not require electricity or any form of power neither to create nor look upon it. They had almost all the information needed in them (different books had different information…. Yes there is more then one and they are still around) but it would take more then just a few minutes to search for the knowledge. In fact most of the time it took hours, days, weeks, even months to find what a person looked for. Many how ever were able to fully read these large or small books in a matter of days (unlike us who might take years.) These creations are still around but few use them or want to use them because we have now allowed the internet to do most of the work for us.
Hayden Blakemore
ReplyDelete17 November 2014
1. Carr begins his essay with this cheesy science-fiction film to, not only catch are eye and intrigue us to read forward, but to also make a valid point. He uses the scene of Dave Bowmen and the computer program very well. Carr saying that Google and other websites on the internet is changing the way we think and act on certain literature items. He used to “immerse himself in a book or a lengthy article at ease” whereas, now if you asked him he might tell you he skimmed over an article the other day and that’s it. I also believe he is right, that the internet is changing the way we think and act on certain things.
4. Google, one of the leading search sites of the US, is showing you so many results that you may feel a little stupider. “I was once a regular guy, till I found the internet. Now I spell everything noncorrectly and tell others they suck at writing.” Says one of the many users of Google. Not only is it offering all that, but it can take you places you never thought existed. Ever think to look for a blog on puppies riding unicorns breathing fire and farting rainbows? That’s on there too! Google will make you look for information so hard you’ll never want to think again. Thanks Google! :D
Q.1
ReplyDeleteI think it has something to do with how within the essay Carr mentions that “the most human character turns out to be a machine.” As technology progresses and we rely on it more and more humans begin to take on characteristics of that technology, just as was said in the essay. So I think that Carr putting the film in his essay is just emphasizing the fact that it may not be long before humans are the robots themselves.
Q.2
Since humans have begun to use the internet more and more frequently, we have ceased talking to each other as much, at least in the literal sense. Sure people will say “hi” or ask how your day is going, but rarely do two people get together and have a lengthy conversation. That is because these things are done over the internet. In my opinion Computers and the use of the internet has greatly decreased the attention span of the human race as whole (or at least those who use it a great deal) such as teenagers, myself included, and especially the upcoming generation of children. More and more we are finding and diagnosing young children with ADHD, but honestly it could all be because they spend so much time on their tablets or Xboxes or in front of a tv that they just think they don’t have time for the world around them.
Jenna Rose Demastus
ReplyDeleteQ1.
He start with a quote from a science fiction movie called The Space Odessy.
He uses the quote to introduce his thought that computers are causing us to act differently and not so greatly immerse ourselves in different books. He talks about sitting down to read a book but then getting too distracted by reading something shorter online. In the en he talks about how in 2001 the most human creature is the machine. This is powerful and in my opinion true statement now a day. In 2014 we are so immersed in what's on the computer that we hardly process what's going on around us, yet the computers and cameras see it all.
Q4. Back in the dark ages there was this thing called writing. All it required was a pen and paper two things practically unknown to man now. Before the magical box that knows everything we would use these so called writing utensils to create masterpieces. These masterpieces were called books and believe it or not we're written without spell check. These mystical things were used everywhere even in school. This things caused us to learn and discover without the use of Google or Bing.
Cierra Grinstead
ReplyDeleteQ.1 I believe he uses this because he wants to pull us in, get us to read more. He also agrees with the quote saying "my mind is going, I can't feel it", Carr says that he can feel it too. He feels as if he can't sit down and really focus on reading a good book because he's drawn to the computer. He ends with the same thing and says that "we all rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world" pretty much that we can't do anything anymore without relying on a computer for everything.
Q.2 I think he means that we have all begun to rely on the internet too much for guidance, intelligence, social lives, even just reassurance of things that we already know are correct. People nowadays don't know how to function or even think without using the internet, and that's pretty much what this world has come to. Teens, even younger children are using the internet more frequently then need be and it's slowly decreasing our intelligence.
Adria Abella Villafranca
ReplyDelete1. Why does Carr begin and end his essay with the science-fiction film, 2001: A Space Odyssey? How does this film become a kind of metaphor for the ideas in his essay?
Carr begins with one metaphor about the film “2001 A space Odyssey”. Carr uses this film to explain that the technology is changing us. He says that he used to read long books but now with (for example) Google, he tends to read something shorter, faster and more specific. He is trying to explain us that humans are becoming robots by themselves.
2. What does Carr mean when he writes, “as we use what the sociologist Daniel Bell has called our “intellectual technologies”…we inevitably begin to take on the qualities of those technologies” (637)? How have our ways of thinking, and indeed, even our metaphors, changed as a result of these technologies? Consider also how previous technologies have changed our thinking, according to the essay.
All the technology is changing us. We are always trying to stay connected because for example we have smartphones. When we are bored, we have a powerful machine that can connect us to the world and give us a lot of information. The humans are curious and when we are thinking that something is bored we want to do another thing. The new technology give us a lot of distractions and facilities that sometimes are bad for us.
Q1. He uses that scene to give us an example of just how much we do rely on the web, and how much it has affected our brains. Used to when I was little I could read books without wanting to set them down. Once I got a phone it was like books didn't seem to impress me anymore. In some sense our minds are going. We now rely on Google to think for us.
ReplyDeleteQ2. Google the search engine that makes you seem smart, when in reality you can't even think for yourself. Spell a word wrong? Something will pull up anyways. Need help coming up with essay ideas, Google's got it covered. Oh and you know those things called books? No? Well they still exist. There is actually these places called libraries that have tons of books that you can check out and read. Don't worry if you can't read I'm sure Google can help you with that too.
Carr is concerned that this generation is to caught up in technology to be able to think on there own, in a way he's right. We rely on spell check, and the little read lines under our misspelled words. Our brains have just grown-up learning to do this. Now we don't appreciate the masterpieces that took authors forever to write back then.
Karina Tarpey
ReplyDeleteQ1: Carr begins and ends his essay with HAL because HAL embodies all that is being written about. Within HAL's story, there are stupid humans and very, very intelligent robots that eventually begin to feel and understand human emotion, even if he does not abide by our codes of honor(by allowing them to be killed and killing them.). It is a resounding metaphor found in many movies and books throughout history, such as iRobot and SmartHouse. When will the robots overtake humanity? We dont know. We know its coming, yet technology marches still.
Q3 If the internet was a philosophy or religion, its doctrine would be: at all cost, knowledge is power. It is not an ethically sound philosophy, religion or doctrine. The people who work Google do not care about people so long as they are the number one search engine. Once its on the internet, its there forever. That, to me, is not a comforting thought. I dont believe we, as credible human beings, should condone and believe in such greedy behavior. Even though the human condition is to survive and thrve no matter what dies. We must push against the world and try, above everything else, to maintain our humanity.
Amelia Navarro
ReplyDelete1) I believe Carr begins his essay with the science-fiction film to prove a point that the internet has changed the way we think and read. We use the internet because of how fast it works and because of the simple answers we are given when we asks a question. Our minds like the idea of less work because of computers and the internet.
2) We are always surrounded by the technology we use because it has become apart of who we are. We use our phones for communication, like texting and rarely have a conversation face to face with one another.
#1. in the beginning and of Carr's essay he uses the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey in order to express his idea of where the human race is headed. All the technology that is here and being created is making it easier for us humans to be more like machines which in turn is opposite of what everything was originally like.
ReplyDelete#2. Carr means that the more we use technology the more we rely on that type of technology. He took it a little further by saying that instead of relying on the technology we will turn into to it but the concept is the same. it is like the saying "you are what you eat." you aren't really going turn into what you eat it is just a saying. people used to think technology was the root of all evil kind of like money. as we have gotten more technology we see that it is more evil than we think but we don't see it as evil anymore.
Amber Simpson
ReplyDelete1.) Carr is saying that we started off as regular people but since technology has evolved, we have evolved into robots, if you will. The metaphor is him calling us machines.
2.) Over time, we have changed our ways of thinking by jumping to technology to fix our problems for us. For example, if you’re wondering how long jell-o takes to form, you may Google it instead of just going to the store and reading the back of the box. Or, in math, so many people rely on calculators which, in all honesty, “dumbs us down.”
1. i believe he uses the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey to show how realistic that the movie actually is because if you think about it we are really becoming more like robots with less emotions towards things that we should have more feelings for.
ReplyDelete2. we have come to rely more on technology than we should. we are now even inventing smaller computers that we can wear and are connected to our phones if we forget them we can still access our emails and texts from this watch. Carr refers to this society as becoming a utopia of technology which if you've watched any utopia society movie then you would know that it never works out the way it should. if people create a computer smarter than them then it can easily take over and convince us that we are still in control. we would end up in a world like the movie I robot where the robots end up taking over thanks to the super computers technological advances that it has.
damn
ReplyDelete