Way of Life
Older people often complain about the attention and focus of students now. They say that the media, especially computers, are destroying our education because it distracts us. “Back in my day,” they would say, “we didn’t have personal computers. When we needed to write a paper, we wrote it by hand and used library books, not the Internet.” They say this as though the process now is not as good. Albert-Laszlo Barabasi is right when he says, “today my work could not be possible without the Internet.” Although this is a necessity because of the way the world is moving in terms of technology, there is another reason for it: Barabasi’s sixth sense.
When we were first evolving into humans, we began to do an astonishing thing: we created tools. At first, it was just something simple, like a stick or a rock. Sticks and rocks combined make spears. When hunting, spears were an extension of our arms. Hunting was not an extracurricular activity but a necessity. However, this was not always the case. Hunting became a necessity, when we developed a good way to hunt. This is true to such an extent that we lost a lot of our “natural” ability to hunt–loss of large wrestling muscles, running on all fours and sharp teeth. Spears became “natural” parts of us, just like how the Internet and computers are becoming a natural part of us: an extension of our minds. As Doulgas Englebart suggests, we are not limited by our intelligence.
Englebart notes that “every person who does his thinking with symbolized concepts should be able to benefit significantly” (Engelbart, 98). Theodore Nelson also emphasizes this point: “modern communications media and in particular electronic media are outgrowths and extensions of those senses which have become dominant in our social development” (Nelson, 307). Alan Kay and Adele Goldberg explains it best with “thinking goes on in one’s head, external media serve to materialize thoughts and, through feedback, augment the actual paths the thinking follows” (Kay & Goldberg, 393).
In summary, computers have the capability to simulate our ideas into physical things that we can see and analyze. They give “concrete form to areas of knowledge that had previously appeared so intangible and abstract” (Papert, 416). Attempting to keep all thinking in the brain is absurd. There are too many things to contemplate, remember, and analyze which is followed by more contemplation, remembering what you contemplated and more analysis. Not only does the computer help us store, retrieve and simulate, it also helps us think through feedback.
Blogs are a prime example. In many ways, blogs are like journals: a place where thoughts can be written and reread later for deeper thinking. The advantage that blogs have over journals is its capability for feedback. Blogs allow other users and guests to comment on thoughts. This feedback is not limited either. Comments can come from anywhere in the world, not just from peers in the classroom or the neighborhood. As our local environment has a huge influence on who we are and how we think, it is important to listen to other people. These comments could inspire ideas that were never thought of or never thought to be relevant.
Computers are more than just an extension to our minds, however. Barabasi’s sixth sense is more about how it changed his way of thinking. Just like how spears changed cavemen’s way of life.
When studying children and their use of LOGO, Seymour Papert noticed that “the child, even at preschool ages, is in control: The child programs the computer. And in teaching the computer how to think, children embark on an exploration about how they themselves think” (Papert, 414). There is thinking about thinking and “learning how to learn” (Turkle, 500). The computer allows for active and self-directed learning.
In school, children learn that something is right or wrong. This is not problem solving. In many ways, it’s a more like learning how to guess correctly: noticing patterns that work and don’t work, such as multiplying by 2 always outputs an even number. Papert says that in computer programming, you almost never get it right the first time. Instead, “programming for a computing machine forces you to think clearly, it disciplines the process” (Licklider, 75). The thinking process for programming is not ‘is this correct or incorrect?’ Rather, it is, ‘its not quite there yet.’ That is the attitude of most good innovators and scientists. Things are never quite satisfactory. There is always room for error or improvement.
Most importantly, computers and the Internet allow for a different form of thinking. It is all about “your frame of mind” (McCloud, 712). As we surf the web and interact with it, we are putting a little bit of ourselves into it. Like in the story of Jarish in Sherry Turkle’s Video Games and Computer Holding Power, “You are Pac-Man” (Turkle, 500). Turkle explains that, while you are playing video games, you are so immersed that you are not only controlling Pac-Man, in the third person, but you are also Pac-Man, in the first person–both first and third at the same time. This is also true for blogs. You are writing, representing yourself, but at the same time, you can read your blog afterwards as a third party.
Blogs keep a record of everything that you have written in the past. We are used to not seeing “what is before it and what is after it–we only see the narrow slit of ‘now’” (Viola, 464). However, when reading one blog post, in the present, you are, at the same time, reading in the past because it was a past post. As Scott McCloud suggests in his comic, Time Frames, it is as though time and space are bent. This occurs all over the Internet through linking. Linear progression is not necessary, or even real. Connections, or links, can exist at any point in time and space. What happened in history one hundred years ago could be pertinent to something today.
The Internet is a great place that simulates this process. The availability of the Internet allows us to think more broadly and less linearly than before because links are everywhere. If the link isn’t there, then a simple Google search will gladly take you to other relevant places and times. Can you imagine trying to find every variable in a problem only through library books? Without search engines, databases and “Find” that would take forever. Of course, every variable is a lot to ask, but computers and the
Internet are a lot more efficient and maybe we can get close.
To the doubters who think computers are ruining our future, they must remember that times change and humans are constantly becoming better thinkers. We build tools that improve our way of thought. Although sixth senses are often seen as fictional or ridiculous, Barabasi’s sixth sense is developing into a way of life.
