tkbunny wrote:
google = outsourcing?
Yes!
To those that mock you with "Why couldn't you Googles that"?
Sort:
Yes, except it's not true. Are you saying that you are qualified to teach History at Harvard now because you can google up anything about which you might want to lecture?
In any case, you assert that it's true that "A lot of specialized knowledge, once held by a few, is rendered obsolete by google."
Would you mind fleshing out your argument a bit?
Storytelling, then books, then internet, then what? Feeding our brains with instantaneously acquired knowledge?
The history of computers may run parallel to the history of television. When it was 1st invented people thought television was fabulous. 50 yrs later, now what do we have, "Duck Dynasty"??
Oh I can give a very recent example.
last year I had a pain over my eye for awhile. I went to a doctor and she thought it might be a precursor to shingles, so she gave me a prescription for Valtrex just in case. I googled the symptoms, and the pain usually should lead the outbreak by at most a week or so, so when no symptoms showed up I went to my eye doctor. She did not have a ready explanation, but having googled, I knew that a pain in that area was sometimes caused by a certain type of infection in the innner eye, and could she examine for that...and she was "Oh! Yes let me look for that."
Of course the perfect ending was that she find something, but she didn't.
But the point is I can research and walk in armed to lots of encounters...buying a house, a car, dental work, all sorts of things that 25 years ago you just had to humbly wait for the opinion of the "expert", but now you can research ahead of time and have plenty of working knowledge to go by.
We're going backwards in history.
Well Ubik, I'm certainly not opposed to that. The things about which you spoke are mundane aspects of bourgeios middle-class life in America. I was talking about how a classical liberal education combined with the broad cultural knowledge only gained through years of reading, travel, and experience, can never be supplanted by the googlesbot.
johnmusacha wrote:
Well Ubik, I'm certainly not opposed to that. The things about which you spoke are mundane aspects of bourgeios middle-class life in America. I was talking about how a classical liberal education combined with the broad cultural knowledge only gained through years of reading, travel, and experience, can never be supplanted by the googlesbot.
Google is reading. And when someone looks up the battle of hastings to supplment their online converation, they are learning things. Much more so than if google were not available.
winerkleiner wrote:
We're going backwards in history.
What, they had google in the middle ages?
Nah, I respectfully disagree. Twenty years ago, a kid wanting to read about the Norman Conquest of England would go to the library (or his father's private library) and get a book or two on the subject. That person would learn more and have his interest piqued perhaps to learn more (especially if he was reading something written before 1940), than a kid today who reads a few blurbs on the subject on Wikipedia, which is written by idiots, for idiots.
Googling any kind of "how to" is probably OK. I wouldn't touch any kind of medical diagnosis with a computer screen. I'm glad your OK Ubik, but I didn't know shingles could manifest in the eye. My mom had it on her back.
Ubik42 wrote:
winerkleiner wrote:
We're going backwards in history.
What, they had google in the middle ages?
Yes but people could only Google chess sites, it confused most people. See, the more you know!
100 bonus points for Johnny; Wiki, written by idiots, for idiots.
googles aint legal in this state between to dudes
johnmusacha wrote:
Nah, I respectfully disagree. Twenty years ago, a kid wanting to read about the Norman Conquest of England would go to the library (or his father's private library) and get a book or two on the subject. That person would learn more and have his interest piqued perhaps to learn more (especially if he was reading something written before 1940), than a kid today who reads a few blurbs on the subject on Wikipedia, which is written by idiots, for idiots.
You say this as someone who self confessedly does not googles!
I have widened my knowledge quite a bit. I dont have to go find a library that is open at 1 am (my prime reading hours). I am far more widely read with google than without, and I was always an avid reader.
Were these idiots all congregating around libraries before google? You are romaticizing a bit. Google does not prevent anyone from going to a library. It simply makes information easier to access.
COmplaining about even wikipedia (which is of course not synonymous with google) is also romaticizing by imagining that a library source is some sort of unbiased source while wikipedia is not. At least wikis get re-edited for fact checking. Who is going to check the facts of the book you are reading? How well do you trust the author? What are the author's biases? WHo came after and checked his facts? Well, maybe one editor, as opposed to the thousands who can check up on wikipedia facts.
Face it, all sources are subject to biases, bad facts, and agendas, hidden or otherwise. There is no black majic juju specific to the internet. Wikipedia is a great place to get information. And wikipedia is not google. Google chess and you will get millions upon millions of results, wikipedia will be just a tiny fraction of those.
Think of a topic. Go look it up in Wikipedia. You will find something you didn't know.
winerkleiner wrote:
Someone could just flip you a dime to buy a new one?
Blutarsky replied:
No, I wasn't looking to buy a pencil.
winerkleiner kept up the chase as follows:
Darn and I had one for sale.
Blutarsky replied:
I have no way of knowing where that pencil has been.
Yes, why would I want to buy a blunt pencil ?
RonaldJosephCote wrote:
The history of computers may run parallel to the history of television. When it was 1st invented people thought television was fabulous. 50 yrs later, now what do we have, "Duck Dynasty"??
See that's it, a great invention which has it's uses ends up being a vice when we decide we want to be entertained to death.
I think someone is just upset that, by using google, you can render obsolete a lot of specialized knowledge gained over the years.
The value of a classical liberal education is that it can never be rendered obsolete by newer and faster ways of accessing "facts". The benefit of education is that it teaches you how to think at a high level. A learned well read gentleman should also possess a certain broad cultural background upon which he weaves his "facts" and thinking. None of this can be replaced by the internet.
For instance, any fool can read about the Battle of Hastings on Wikipedia. However, will this person be able to intelligently discuss the modern signficance of the battle, or how the significance of the same was viewed differently in the nineteenth century, and why?
I think not. The most the "googler" will be prepared to stammer out is "uh...well, the Anglo-Saxons were defeated by the Normans."
I very carefully did not say "all", just "a lot".
And this is true. A lot of specialized knowledge, once held by a few, is rendered obsolete by google.
A very good thing.