Thursday, December 3, 2009

Intolerance to memorising

I have spent the last 1 and half months (roughly) in close proximity to my grand-parents. I see that they lay heavy weightage on memorising things. Phone numbers, distances, maps, relationship-connections etc.

I see that my grand-dad prefers to make a rough draft before writing a letter or filling out an application form etc.

I remember being the same until a few months (or is it years) ago. But now, the internet equipped computer age which allows me instant access to information, editing and spell checks makes me intolerant to the erstwhile systems.

I no longer see virtue in or feel the drive to deliberately learn things by heart. I no longer want to jot down things I find interesting - recipes, songs, names, addresses - not even phone numbers.

When I meet someone interesting, I normally google or facebook their contacts.

My thinking is that the human race is slowly going to use lesser and lesser of their memory cells.

This will either make the human brain (and head) smaller over generations or it will enable the human race to sharpen other aspects of the brain - analysis, creativity, inventions. (thereby keeping our appearance the same)

What do you think?

5 comments:

Brown Weed said...

hmm hmm. interesting thought.. i think, the number of people and amount of information coming our way is far more than ever before. the sacrifice is not of memory - tis only a depth for breadth tradeoff.

Pooja Nair said...

Thats what I thought too... thanks for your views Mr. B!

meraj said...

yeah...i think memory now has better things to remember...like a songs melody (and these days, the chords for me) or a lovely sequence from a movie or the taste of a particular wine or time spent with loved ones...things which can help you pass your solitude beautifully and perhaps help you sleep or become an element of an interesting conversation with friends by the beach.

Pooja Nair said...

true meraj..:)

ALIen said...

yes its very interesting and going back to past the average height earlier was 7 foot and taller but since the physical things kept on decreasing and so the physical appearance too but now when we are using only brain and as a result we may evolve to some alien creature with big heads....star trek of alien wars likes...
Cheers!!!!!