Google it.

Google is considered the greatest search engines ever to be bestowed upon the World Wide Web and all of its users. It can be used for almost anything related to media and information. Just type in one word, and users will subjected to over one million external web addresses, taking them from one web page to another. It truly is that simple. Many people will argue that Google is the best creation known to the Internet while others will argue that Google and the Internet together are causing negative effects on human intellectual capacities. And this is what they have to say.

I understand the complication Carr feels towards this problem about the Internet and Google changing the way humans go about thinking. He explains how “Once [he] was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now [he zips] along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.” This is reflecting his thoughts about reading text coming from the Internet, rather than text coming from books. I seem to agree with what he is saying. The Internet is being used so frequent with the younger generation that books seem like a lost item. Even I see myself using the Internet to find information for my daily homework rather than using the book itself to solve the problem. I believe this is due to the convenience of “Google-ing” certain terms and coming up with the exact answer, instead of flipping through page after page, from index back to the passage, searching for one term on a page covered with thousands of words. And when I do need to use my textbook, I sometimes wish it had a “search” function that will lead me straight to what I am looking for.

There is also a quote by pathologist Bruce Friedman from the University of Michigan Medical School who admitted that “Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. [He skims] it.” Unfortunately, I must admit that I felt the exact same way when I was reading this exact article as well. It’s not only with articles either. If I am working on a long, cumbersome homework assignment, I tend to get off task and become distracted by the easiest things, especially if that assignment is done on the computer. This will eventually lead me to get on the Internet, listen to music, watch television, or anything that will get me away from actually doing my work. Sadly, this is becoming more frequent say after day of my senior year. I think it’s a disease that all seniors become infected with, coined by the term “senioritis”.

In the end, is there really a way to show that people are actually becoming “dumber” using the Internet and search engines such as Google? This article does reveal many convincing arguments supporting this theory, but who can really tell? I believe that there needs to be more evidence and supporting data before calling this theory plausible. Even though this may be just another article floating in the waters of the massive sea called World Wide Web, it holds up many convincing arguments and viewpoints trying to bring down the communication giant called the Internet. I think they are on to something…

"The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people."
~ Karl Marx

Was this a mistake?

So here goes another post for the blog. There are a bunch of topics we have been covering throughout our reading with Cat’s Cradle, but I think I tonight’s topic will be about the additional inferences about untruths in Cat’s Cradle and also the astonishing video we saw in class, Did You Know?

In my last post, I spoke mainly on the issue of non existing truth or a meaning to life. I got into the complications of scientific research, and how the research being done cannot be called purely true because there is nothing in the data that states this is so. Then, they use even more science and research as evidence to prove that it really is true. To summarize the post, I stated that there is nothing in the universe that will tell anyone anything about the absolute truth to life. The further I get into the novel, the more they emphasize on this concept of truth. But this time, I am beginning to see more often examples of what is said in the pretext about foma. It states “Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy” with foma meaning harmless untruths (Vonnegut). This can be seen in chapter 85 where John, the narrator, is searching for a term in The Books of Bokonon where he comes across the story about the solar system. It talks about Borasisi, the sun, and Pabu, the moon, creating children which were cold and did not burn, so Borasisi threw them away. They became the planets who keep their distance away from their disappointed father. But Puba decided to leave and stay with her favorite child of them all, Earth. And after this excerpt, it goes on to call it “Foma! Lie!... A pack of foma!” (Vonnegut 191) This was the story written in The Books of Bokonon. Today, people are still unsure about our endless universe and how exactly everything came into existence. The story given by Bokonon is not true, but it gives people meaning and something to believe in. Instead of just accepting that it is just there and it will always be there sort of thought process, this creates an effective way to explain things in simpler means. In postmodern terms, Bokonon’s story would fall under the concept of a local narrative.

There is also a place in the novel emphasizing this concept of truth. In this case, John meets Mona for the first time and tries to introduce himself. She responds by saying “It is not possible to make a mistake” (Vonnegut 203). This statement reveals a lot about this subject of truth and the self individual. I guess you can say that anything believed by the individual himself is subjected to be true, such as Mona’s statement with mistakes. Nothing you do can be called a mistake because an action is an action. An action becomes a mistake when the mindset of the individual, telling himself that what they did was a mistake. It is all in the perspective of the individual alone and what he believes to be true. If he believes that what he did was a mistake, then that is what it is to him. If he does not believe that what he did what he did was a mistake, then so be it. But all in all, he is the one revealing what he believes to be the actual truth. Sorry if this sounds kind of wordy and repetitive.

Well, so much for talking about the Did You Know? video. I guess I got too caught up on this subject of truths again. I did not even get to mention how I am beginning to sense another new dimension to this notion of untruths. I seem to be getting this sense of reality being more complicated than what is in front of one’s own eyes throughout Cat’s Cradle as well. This issue can wait until the next post then. Quote of the day…

“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”
~ Confucius

Science is such a lie.

“The first sentence in the Books of Bokonon is this: All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies... Anyone unable to understand how a useful religion can be founded on lies will not understand this book either” (Vonnegut 5-6). This is the author’s primary warning to the readers about the issues which his novel entails. What exactly is Vonnegut trying to say? He is stating that there is no such thing as an ultimate truth. No matter what we go through in our lifetimes, there will be no experience revealing an absolute truth about our world. As postmodernists view there is “no reason for a center”, since there is no center for pure fact (Powell 18). The novel Cat’s Cradle, by Kurt Vonnegut, effectively demonstrates the postmodern view that life has no absolute truth.

Let’s put into account the study of science. This process is an excellent example demonstrating this concept about true things all being shameless lies. When scientific research is performed, it is based on two types of studies, qualitative and quantitative reasoning. Qualitative reasoning will give you information dealing with behaviors and cycles, and quantitative reasoning will give you information dealing with numbers and statistics. This entire time these scientists are studying and calculating, they begin creating conclusions about their findings. And in the end, after compiling all of their data and conclusive ideas, they come up with this ultimate idea depicting the truth that came out of their tireless research called a theorem. So how does science relate to this concept of truth being shameless lies? According to the website Dictionary.com, the word theorem is derived from the Greek word theorema, meaning spectacle, hence, subject for contemplation, thesis, to be proved. There is nothing in the scientist’s research saying that their data is the absolute truth. Although the information is leading to an ultimate truth, there is still nothing verifying their studies as purely true. As the definition states, there is still subject for contemplation. And how do scientists overcome such a hurdle as this? They use even more science as proof and evidence. They are using lies to prove other lies. Maybe the use of the word lies is a little harsh; even I do not like using that word to describe these concepts. Science is best described as a grand narrative, “big stories, stories of mythic proportions – that claim to be able to account for, explain, and subordinate all lesser little, local narratives.

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
~ Oscar Wilde