The curse of Technological lobotomy

Every day I get emails telling me about the next amazing feature of X, or new release of Y. I like to dabble in some of the muddier ponds of technology available in this fine age so you could say that I am looking for trouble by continually scouring the internet for the next gadget or software trick to double efficiency. I'm sure many of us can relate to this in some degree, as it would seem that Business and Personal lives are inescapably governed by what technology allows us to do.


My question is, are we really working smarter and faster? Or does every auto-complete or keyboard short cut make us that little bit stupider?


The age-old head slap moment where you forget to attach a file to that all important email. I sat down to compose on my Gmail account yesterday and intended to send an attachment to a colleague. Upon clicking "Send" I was politely informed by Gmail that I "had used the word 'attached' in my email, but I had not attached a file". Now at first I was heartened by this gentle, if slightly condescending remark. Much like the firm reminder from a Primary School teacher that writing primarily in crayon was not going to cut it when I moved on in life. Don't get me wrong, I like this feature, what concerns me is that next time I will kick back and let the computer check for my mistakes. With nothing but a red underline or a last minute warning message screening us from professional embarrassment, how long before we fall foul?


The branding trend of slipping in the term "Smart" could be a bit of a misnomer. 'Smart cars' promise a revolution in city transport and assist those who struggle with space or parking (http://tinyurl.com/63a34b3). 'SMART' interactive whiteboards with interactive touch screens and virtual pens profess to aid presentation skills and bring media together to improve teaching effectiveness (http://tinyurl.com/5sfkxjh). Voice dialling on now ubiquitous 'Smartphones' claim to alleviate the tiresome need for us to use our hands. So the general consensus seems to be that if we bolt on certain technology, then we become smarter in the way we work?


Well my argument would be that we are wandering a fine line. There are 3 camps who I would suggest most people fall into. First your non-adopters and your technophobics. (Laggards, your elderly father who still doesn't trust radio waves let alone iPads). Second you have those who take what they are given and pick up gadgets and efficiency tricks as they become common place and not before (Late majority, your average mobile phone user who dabbles with apps and downloads). Thirdly you have your gadget hunters who go out of their way to find "Smart" ways of getting the job done (Early adopters, like your mate Dave who regularly presents you with something flashy and largely useless, but nevertheless admirable). The more you gravitate towards the third camp, the greater the risk of what I call Technological lobotomy.

Being of the third order camp myself I do hope that I will retain my mental faculties long enough to reach retirement. However I fear there is a good chance me and many others will wind up drooling in a lazy-boy with only a tablet PC and a VR headset for company if we let computers do too many things for us without thinking. A fellow blogger also points out that technology fundamentally allows us to be physically unfit in everyday life which should also be thrown into the mix (http://wooga.drbacchus.com/technology-makes-us-dumber).


If you are concerned about your rapidly declining IQ as you read this, fear not, simply perform this test: When you next write an email, turn off the spellcheck and see if you can still formulate basic words and sentences. If you are horrified by the results then a brief spell of Neo-Luddism might be in order (http://tinyurl.com/ycnj9n9)


**Update 2/1/11: Nukes and babies protected by AI: http://tinyurl.com/5rcs4vt
**Update 5/2/11: Good software = stupid? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-11263559