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
38
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.
Comparing with Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, human beings have the particular feature as______.
选项
A、being able to make memories and recall them
B、receiving the stimuli from the outside world
C、being able to make life interesting and difficult
D、forming stories, images and memories in minds
答案
A
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/Qcc7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
Allourpreparationswent______becausetheexamswerecalledoff.
Beforethe1870’strainednurseswerevirtuallyunknownintheUnitedStates.Hospitalnursingwasanunskilledoccupation,tak
WhatdoNationalSemiconductor,MaxwellHouseCoffee,Deloitte&Touche,andHearstMagazineshaveincommon?Alltheseorganiza
Becausehewas______ofthenewlimit,hewasstoppedandwarnedforspeeding.
Whatdoesthespeakertellusaboutimportantdecision-makingintheUS?
A、Potentialoftheschool.B、Makingmoremoneyinthefuture.C、Popularityoftheschool.D、Theirownstateofmind.B信息明示题。短文开篇
A、Tolearnmoreknowledge.B、Toprepareforinterviews.C、Tofindoutjobvacancies.D、Toknowaboutkindsofjobs.D
孙大圣孙大圣是中国古典文学名著《西游记》中的一个重要人物。他是唐僧第一个徒弟。其实在中国,他最受欢迎的名字不是“孙大圣”,而是“孙悟空”,这是教他72变的第一个师傅给他起的名字。“悟”的意思是“启迪”。“空”的意思是“无”,这是佛学中最重
月光族中国经济的高速发展,带来了消费文化的日益流行,同时也催生了一批具有高学历,充分享受资本主义消费模式的年轻人,他们习惯于当月工资当月花。因而被称为“月光族”。“月光族”一词出现于20世纪90年代,是用来讽刺那些出身富裕、接受高等教育、享受
随机试题
下列不属于系统软件的是_____。
骨骼肌收缩时,下列哪一结构的长度不变
某患者,恶寒发热,肌表无汗,头痛项强,肢体痠楚疼痛,口苦微渴,舌苔白或微黄,脉浮。治宜选择的方剂是
此次事故的主要责任人为()。根据《特种设备安全监察条例》和该企业的情况,下列说法正确的有()。
银行如果不服地方人民法院第一审判决的,有权在判决书送达之日起()内向上一级人民法院提起上诉。
2010年8月,王某、张某、李某三人共同投资设立了长城有限责任公司(以下简称“长城公司”)。2010年10月,长城公司联合另外五家公司共同设立了日照股份有限公司(下简称“日照公司”)。日照公司于2011年5月首次公开发行股份,同年6月其股票在证券交易所上市
我国采取的签证制度有()。
当时的巴黎,有一种怪现象,只有画女人裸体画可以换几个钱去买面包,而许多认真创作出来的严肃作品却(),更无人()。谁要想成为一名真正的画家,那就准备着去做一个讨饭的穷光蛋吧!
“驴友”是对户外运动、自助自主旅行爱好者的称呼。近年来随着生活水平的提高,越来越多的人加入边走边游、边玩边健身的“驴友"大军。不过,他们中的大多数人都没有专业的户外运动安全常识,每年都有“驴友"遇险的新闻见诸媒体。作者接下来最有可能讲述的是:
Youcanenjoy______atJackStein’s.
最新回复
(
0
)