I just had an interesting random thought while reading a philosophical argument concerning religion and wanted to get it down.
I think a new sort of (faux) intelligence is evolving. It’s a sort of Gestaltian intelligence, a fusion of technology with the human mind. The human mind will continue evolving as society progresses technologically to the point where mere facts are no longer bothered to be remembered. Virtual locations are remembered. Very general concepts are understood to varying degrees, but in all cases of understanding on a topic the bits and pieces and how to piece them together are remembered, and the facts alone are not. I believe that this allows for a much broader range of understanding over a larger group of topics to occur than is possible with traditional study. 99% of memorization is futile, we just eventually forget. Computers and the internet do not forget. It is like a sort of game where you just remember the rules and in what way to apply them, and you win.
The obvious downside to this whole way of thinking and organization of the mind is that without a computer nearby to aid in discussion one can be near useless. Full of just bits and pieces that come out as a rather fragmentary rambling and rarely convey a single point or clear purpose. I’m frequently guilty of these ramblings because I will begin a conversation and think I know something when in reality I only have some bits and pieces and cannot complete the whole puzzle without consulting some resource*. This can be mildly frustrating but we are heading toward an age where computers will be at your “fingertips” (or “voice,” or “thought”) at all times. Bookmarked sites with highlighted points of interest, wikipedia, google, online dictionaries, etc.; they all currently contribute and more resources will certainly be available in the future. Before the advent of the broadband digital age this type of thought was not really possible.
I think this is could be a sort of segway between the traditional way of learning and thinking that had dominated for thousands of years before this technological age and the eventual physical culmination of mankind and technology (aka sci-fi stuff like “installing” new skill-sets or “augmenting” forgotten memories, etc.).
*Note: for things which fall under common knowledge this often doesn’t happen and of course I still know how to learn “the old way,” but for advanced concepts the internet is changing my mind…it seems.
16th Street 
Marshall said,
June 11, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Very interesting. I believe I can relate to the fractured knowledge of facts but good grasp of basic concepts and ideas. Is that good or bad, I don’t know.