David Brooks on his "Outsourced Brain"
Submitted by Merlin on October 26, 2007 - 7:19am.
NYT’s David Brooks on outsourcing memory, reference, and decision-making to things that theoretically do it better:
I have relinquished control over my decisions to the universal mind. I have fused with the knowledge of the cybersphere, and entered the bliss of a higher metaphysic. As John Steinbeck nearly wrote, a fella ain’t got a mind of his own, just a little piece of the big mind — one mind that belongs to everybody. Then it don’t matter, Ma. I’ll be everywhere, around in the dark. Wherever there is a network, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a TiVo machine making a sitcom recommendation based on past preferences, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a Times reader selecting articles based on the most e-mailed list, I’ll be there.
And, ironically enough, if you didn’t catch the Grapes of Wrath reference, it’s easy enough to find it. Because, if you’re like me, sometimes you also outsource your pop culture knowledge to Google, Wikipedia, and IMDB.
As for Brooks’ opening anecdote – using a GPS? A life-saver for me. Ever since moving from a state where everything orients on a north-south grid to a place where diagonals and seemingly non-Euclidean intersections rule, I’d be literally lost without my Nüvi.
Previously (and mentioned in Brooks’ piece): Clive Thompson on the downside of the outboard brain.
[via: rickroberts in the 43f forum]
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Transactive Memory
I blogged about this exact thing last night. It seems with the extension of internet access (see: iPhone), this seems even more possible. I noted that I thought it was along the same lines as BitTorrent, especially in a venue like wikipedia. Lots of little pieces of knowledge come together as one whole.
And, although Brooks doesn't mention it explicitly, this strikes me as just a hyper-method of transactive memory. I don't need to know which Halloween doesn't have Michael Meyers, because I know that Wikipedia or IMDB will have that knowledge for me.
(And the streets in downtown Austin are Texas rivers, in the proper east-west order. Unfortunately for me, I don't know what order Texas rivers come in.)