Darwin Revelation

In today’s technology filled world we are able to accomplish tasks within minutes that a few years ago could have taken hours or even days. With the abundance of information on the internet we are constantly bombarded with new facts and tidbits of information that we would never have know otherwise. This abundance of information and stimuli is slowly reworking the way our brains interpret and process information.
“When the Net absorbs a medium, that medium is re-created in the Net’s image. It injects the medium’s content with hyperlinks, blinking ads, and other digital gewgaws, and it surrounds the content with the content of all the other media it has absorbed. A new e-mail message, for instance, may announce its arrival as we’re glancing over the latest headlines at a newspaper’s site. The result is to scatter our attention and diffuse our concentration.” (Carr)
After reading this article I really started to notice how much the internet and technology in general have affected the way that my mind works. Just during the time it took me to write this I found myself easily distracted by surfing through news articles online. “My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.” (Carr)
Maybe it’s inevitable that the way our minds work is being changed by the influence of technology. Philip K Dick suggested this very thing in his short story “Pay for the Printer”. The existence of the Biltongs in the story basically changes the way that people think about and view the everyday objects around them. The Biltongs take over the work that people would normally do leaving the skill sets of the people useless. Over time the way people think changes and the skills and knowledge that was once vital to their survival is phased out, it’s basically devolution of the human species.
These changes that people have been noticing are proving many of Darwin’s thoughts and ideas to be true. The way we think and operate is being directly affected by the environment and society that we live in.



Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" The Atlantic. July & aug. 2008. Web. 29 Nov. 2009. .
Dick, Philip K. Philip K Dick Reader. New York City: Citadel, `1987. Print.