首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Is the Internet Making Us Forgetful? A tourist takes a picture of the Empire State Building on his iPhone, deletes it, then
Is the Internet Making Us Forgetful? A tourist takes a picture of the Empire State Building on his iPhone, deletes it, then
admin
2013-10-17
26
问题
Is the Internet Making Us Forgetful?
A tourist takes a picture of the Empire State Building on his iPhone, deletes it, then takes another one from a different angle. But what happened to that first image? The delete button on our cameras, phones, and computers is a function we use often without thinking, yet it remains a fantastic concept. Most things in the world don’t just disappear. Not our thrown away plastic water bottles. Not the keys to the apartment. Not our earliest childhood memories.
"It is possible that every memory you have ever experienced that made its way into your long-term memory is still buried somewhere in your head," Michael S. Malone writes in his new book The Guardian of All Things-. The Epic Story of Human Memory. It is both a blessing and a curse that we cannot voluntarily erase our memories. Like it or not, we are stuck with our experiences. It’s just one of the many ways that human beings differ from digital cameras.
Yet, humans are relying more and more on digital cameras and less on our own minds. Malone tells the story of how, over time, humans have externalized(外化)their internal memories, departing themselves from the experiences they own. The book is a history in time order—from the development of paper, libraries, cameras, to microchips—about how we place increasing trust in technology.
Is it a good thing for electronic devices and the Internet to store our memories for us? When we allow that to happen, who do we become? Will our brains atrophy(萎缩)if we chose not to exercise them? Malone, who is a Silicon Valley reporter, shows us the technological progress, but backs away from deeper philosophical questions. His love for breaking news—the very idea of breakthrough—is apparent, but he fails to address the more distressing implications.
The biology of human memory is largely mysterious. It is one of the remaining brain functions whose location neuroscientists can’t place. Memory nerve cells are distributed all over the brain, hidden in its gray wrinkles like money behind couch cushions. " What a plunge," opens Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, as Clarissa tosses open her French windows and is transported into her remembered past. " Live in the moment" is a directive we often hear these days in yoga class, but our ability to weave in and out of the past is what makes life interesting and also difficult for humans.
The Neanderthal(穴居人的)brain was powerful, but lacking a high-capacity memory, " forever trapped in the now," according to Malone. The stories, images, and phrases that we turn over in our minds while lying awake in bed were different for them. Neanderthals could receive the stimuli of the world—colors, sounds, smells—but had limited ways to organize or access that information. Even the term Homo sapiens(晚期智人)reveals how our brains work differently from our ancestors. Translated from the Latin, it means knowing man. Not only do we know, but we know that we know. Our self-consciousness, that ability not only to make memories but to recall them, is what defines us.
Short-term memories are created by the compound of certain proteins in a cell and long-term memories are created by released magnesium(镁). Each memory is then inserted like handprints in concrete. This is what we know about the physical process of memory making. Why a person might remember the meal they ate before their parents announced a divorce, but not the announcement itself, remains a scientific mystery.
The appearance of language is linked to memory, and many early languages were simply devices that aid memory. They served as a method for sharing memories, an early form of fact-checking that also expands the lifetime of a memory. The Library of Alexandria is an example of a population’s desire to catalog a common memory and situate it safely outside their own short-lived bodies.
The ancient Romans even had a discipline called Ars Memorativa, or the art of memory. They honored extraordinary acts of memorization, just as they honored extraordinary feats in battle, and Cicero excelled at this. Memorization was an art that could be polished using patterns, imaginary structures and landscapes. Without training, the human brain can hold only about seven items in short-term memory.
The invention of computer memory changes everything. We now have " Moore’s Law," the notion that memory chips will double in performance every 18 months. Memory plug base continues to decrease in size while our memories accumulate daily. Because of growing access to the Internet, Malone argues that individualized memory matters less and less. Schoolchildren today take open-book tests or with a calculator. " What matters now is not one’s ownership of knowledge, but one’s skill at accessing it and analyzing it," he writes. However, something is lost. We have unlimited access to a wealth of information, yet little of it belongs to us.
Human beings have a notion of self, a subjective world particular to us, thanks to our highly complicated and individualized brains that Malone compares to " the roots and branches of a tree." We own our own hardware, and we all remember differently. The Internet offers us access to information, but it is really a part of the external world of colors and sounds that even Neanderthals could receive. A world in which all our memories are stored on electronic devices and all our answers can be found by Googling is a world closer to the Neanderthal’s than to a high-tech, idealized future. I don’t remember when I first learned the word dejd vu but I do remember the shirt I wore on the first day of 9th grade. Memory is a tool, but it can also teach us about what we think is important. Human memory is a way for us to learn about ourselves.
"Live in the moment" is a directive that is hard to achieve because______.
选项
A、it can only be heard in yoga class
B、the brain’s function is not advanced
C、people have the memory of the past
D、human memory is very mysterious
答案
C
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/Gcc7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
BanksinShanghaialsoopenfrom9a.m.-5/6p.m.PeoplecanputfundsonTransportCardtousefortaxis,themetro,lightrail
WhatdoNationalSemiconductor,MaxwellHouseCoffee,Deloitte&Touche,andHearstMagazineshaveincommon?Alltheseorganiza
A、Itisinthecenterofthecampus.B、Ithasinformationaboutthecampus.C、Itshouldhaveamapofthecity.D、ItProbablyha
TheBrazilianpartoftherainforestwillbewipedoutwithinthenexttwocenturies.TheBraziliangovernmenttriedtoprotect
A、Examsdon’ttellthewholestory.B、Testscannoteffectivelymeasurestudents’abilities.C、Thecancellationofexamsshould
Donotleavethebuildingunless______todoso.
Healthingeneraltermsincludesmanynon-medicalareas,suchashousingandemployment.Asfarasindividualisconcerned,welf
A、Forthesakeofhighgrades.B、Forpassinggivenexaminations.C、Forthegoodofgainingknowledge.D、Forthecompletionofre
A、Economics.B、Business.C、History.D、English.C事实细节题。短文中提到,30年前,主修经济学和商业管理的学生仅占本科生比例的8%,而几乎12%的本科生是主修历史学的。即30年前历史专业比较受欢迎。
中国是风筝的故乡。放风筝有益于身体健康,所以,许多国家十分流行放风筝。中国人不仅把放风筝当作有趣的游戏和有益于身体健康的体育活动,也常常把风筝作为装饰挂在墙上。目前,中国的风筝已经远销到日本以及东南亚和欧美的许多国家,受到了世界各国人民的欢迎。近年来,山东
随机试题
标志着整个中国民族资产阶级领导的旧民主主义革命终结的是二次革命的失败。()
求不定积分∫arctanxdx.
关于呼吸调节的叙述,错误的是
白药历经百年历史,始终坚守国药立业之本,不懈追求自立自强。1999年,YN白药开始尝试应用到其他相关领域。经过五六年的精心研发,YN白药将其有效成分添加到个人医用护理产品中,YN白药气雾剂上市后受到了广大消费者的喜爱。同时,YN白药拒绝与创可贴的
法国、意大利和西班牙三国资源环境独特,经济发展水平高。根据下列材料,结合所学知识。材料一法国、意大利和西班牙地理位置示意图材料二2007年法国、意大利和西班牙发电量构成2011年6月8日,三个国家的首都,白昼最长的是_________
下列属于纯公共产品的是()。
中国传统文化中有很多关于社会和谐的思想,以下体现和谐思想的是:①孔子“和为贵”的思想②墨子“兼相爱”、“爱无差”的思想③老子“鸡犬之声相闻。老死不相往来”的思想④孟子“老吾老以及人之老,幼吾幼以及人之幼”的思想
根据下面材料回答下列问题。下列年份,深圳市普通中学年末在校学生数同比增量最大的是()。
下列关于新闻组服务的说法,错误的是()。
Weareallforyoursuggestionthatthetrip______.
最新回复
(
0
)