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
76
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.
The Library of Alexandria is a good illustration to show______.
选项
A、the history of language development
B、people’s desire to catalog the memory
C、how to check the facts in ancient time
D、where to find the long-term memory
答案
B
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/hcc7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
Areyousuperstitious?Doyoubelieveingoodluckandbadluck?And,ifso,howdoyougoaboutavoidingbadand【S1】______goo
A、Humanandwildlifehealthrisksarebeingreduced.B、Theecologicalsystemwillberestoredinthenearfuture.C、Significant
Itiswellknownthatknowledgeisthe______conditionforexpansionofmind.
Radicalcutstosocialwelfarespendingtoreducebudgetdeficitscouldcausenotjusteconomicpainbutcostlives,warnexpert
ThebeautyofVenice______largely______thestyleofitsancientbuildings.
SpidersSpiderscanbedistinguishedfromotherArachnidsbecausetheprosoma(combinedheadandthorax)isonlyseparatedf
A、Noonewasinterestedinthediscussion.B、Politicsisasensitivetopic.C、Thewomanisnotbeingserious.D、Peopleshouldav
A、Potentialoftheschool.B、Makingmoremoneyinthefuture.C、Popularityoftheschool.D、Theirownstateofmind.B信息明示题。短文开篇
Inthefirstsentence,thewritersays"itisclaimed"because______.RealityTVappealstosomepeoplebecauseit______.
A、TheRomans.B、Napoleon.C、Josephine.D、Britishpeople.C文中提到拿破仑的妻子Josephine在巴黎开办了一个植物园,收集并鼓励种植新品种的玫瑰花,使这种花变得越来越受欢迎。故选C)项。
随机试题
以PEM为大前提,再增补下列哪项为小前提,可有效推出结论SOP?()
Manyoftheworld’spollutionproblemshavebeencausedbythecrowdingoflargegroupsofpeopleintothecities.Tosupplyfor
男性,32岁,从高处跌下后尿道口流血,不能自行排尿,收住院。体检:腹软,无压痛,脐下3cm可触及圆形肿物,叩诊浊音,骨盆拍片见右耻骨上下肢骨折。导尿管可插入20cm,流出鲜红色血性液体,未见尿液。你认为不可能的诊断有()
煤矿分配职工上岗作业前未进行安全教育、培训的,经煤矿安全监察机构责令限期改正,逾期不改正的,由煤矿安全监察机构处()的罚款。
根据我国《城市房地产管理法》的规定,以出让方式取得土地使用权进行房地产开发的,满()时间未动工开发的,可以无偿收回土地使用权。
施工质量事故发生的原因有()。
Americanstodaydon’tplaceaveryhighvalueonintellect.Ourheroesareathletes,entertainers,andentrepreneurs,notschol
关于“五四”青年节.组织一个活动,怎么安排?
教师职业的特点。(陕西师范大学2014年研)
Forthispart,youareallowed30minutestowriteashortessayaboutyouropinionsontheissueofheavytraffic.Youressays
最新回复
(
0
)