When my kids were little, computers were just being brought into schools. Their elementary school had a little computer lab, and I was a volunteer in that lab. All the kids took right to the technology (probably faster than I did), but my favorites were the kindergartners. These wonderful new little brains were so ready to soak up all things computer – it amazed me. And these were old DOS-based computers! Now, of course, computers are an integral part of school curricula, tremendously expanding the kids’ experiences – they can go anywhere in the world through computers, and do all kinds of tasks, including learning some basic programming at such a young age. After reading Carr’s book, I can’t help wondering what the impact of their almost constant use of the internet will be on the intelligence of our country, or even of the world. We talked a lot in class about Carr’s assertion that our brains are being rewired once again. Humans were originally wired to be easily distracted. This was a matter of self-preservation – they had to be able to stay aware of everything going on around them to avoid being attacked by wild animals, or even other humans. Over time, of course, with the rise of civilization, humans didn’t have to worry so much about being killed. Then with the invention of writing, and then of books, the printing press, humans eventually could stay focused on one task, such as reading, which caused our brains to be rewired, and not be as easily distracted. But now, according to Carr, our time spent on the Internet has taught us to once again be constantly distracted – jumping here and there through hypertext – and making it hard to focus on a task. We’re becoming restless, unable to concentrate long enough to even enjoy a good book. I don’t know if I totally agree with Carr, but it has made me wonder about what this means for the future if he is right. Will this change our actual intelligence? (Whatever that is.) Will we lose our ability to figure things out for ourselves, since we can depend on computers to do it for us? And will civilization start to unravel because of this? As in my last post, I keep wondering if machines will somehow take on intelligence as ours declines, and what would that mean for us? Can the Internet itself become intelligent, and because of its distributed framework, could it become so intelligent that it could take control, and take precautions from being turned off? When looking to the future, this can become quite frightening to contemplate.