stupidly google

I've lamented before about Carr's ability to garner headlines simply by making stupid claims wrapped in academic rhetorical structures. He sounds convincing, but he's not doing anything that Howard Stern, Rush Limbaugh, and Jim Rome don't already do.

So I'm not going to review, attack, or dismiss the recently renewed interest in an old Carr article in which he pisses and moans about how old he's getting and wondering if, Is Google Making Us Stupid?

OK, maybe just a little attacking. Short answer: No Nicholas. Dumbass headline grabbers like you are making us stupid -- stupid for wasting time writing about your dumbassness.

What I do want to note is an absolutely wonderful quote I found in a refutation of Carr's idiot claim. In his well-crafted (and seemingly Composition-loving) rebuttal, Trent Batson states:

"It is easy to criticize a new technology; it is much harder to understand how the new technology can help create new abilities in humans. And even much harder to understand how technology can actually recapture and re-enable human abilities."

The challenge that Batson notes is what gets technologists geeked up. It is the essence of human achievement. There is a comfort that comes with most technologies. It's a comfort that hinders exploitation and extension. It is a comfort that allows the likes of Carr (and a number of unnamed tech-dismissive university executives) to bemoan how technology is chaning the way we do things -- as if change of any sort is bad.

Carr will have ample opportunity to bitch and cry as long as there is technological advancement for the rest of us to get excited about. It's a fair enough trade.