Analysis Of They, Say I Say, By Nicholas Carr

An article, from the book “They, Say I Say,” titled “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” written by Nicholas Carr, elaborates how the internet is changing the way humans think. Without research or evidence, Carr uses a play on emotion to draw in his readers. While using a collection of historical anecdotes, Carr argues that the internet has exploited the plasticity of the human brain. The brain holds billions of connections, formed by the neurons, which constantly change. Carr states “The human brain is almost infinitely malleable” (as cited in Carr, 2008, P. 319). The author worries that the use of the internet will confiscate the human mind. Soon leaving people unable to even read a single book. Carr tries to prove his own point by telling …show more content…
A Physicist, Haim Harari, says “’Because facts are a click away, the internet allows us to know fewer facts…reducing their importance as a component of thought’” (as cited in Begley, 2010, p. 28). Begley comes to mean that since the information is so accessible, people don’t acquire as much knowledge because it appears less significant. Over the year’s people have heard of different metaphors that were used to describe the brain. Metaphors such as ‘brains operate like clockwork or computers’ (As cited in Carr, 2008, p. 320). Carr believes that long time use of the internet will narrow the ability of human contemplation. Instead of being unique and complex the internet has tricked us into believing that our minds should work like high-speed data processors that make thinking, merely mechanical (As cited in Carr, 2008, p. 325). Carr provides an exciting example of the brain being mechanical. In history, the brain used to use its senses to send signals to the body when to daily activities like eating, sleeping, and going to the bathroom. Ever since mankind created the digital clock they have started …show more content…
Carr references “What Taylor did for the work of the hand, Google is doing for the work of the mind” (as cited in Carr, 2008, p. 324). A man by the name Frederick Winslow Taylor set up a series of precise steps on how to maximize the efficiency of a factories productivity. Today we might call it an algorithm, but the author reminds us that Google continuously is running tests and collecting data to make its database the efficient system out there. Carr catches the emotion of the audience when he states that Google could create the first elaborate artificial intelligence, as Sergey Brin and Larry Page, creators of Google, publically stated (as cited in Carr, 2008, p. 324). The author also compares Google’s headquarters, Googleplex, to the High church of Christ. This allows the reader imagine the amount of Power does and could have. Google is here to create the perfect search engine and take it to as high of a level as possible. In the text, Carr states “In Google’s view, information is a kind of commodity, a utilitarian resource that can be mined…” (as cited in Carr, 2008, p. 324). The author lets his audience believe that Google, or the mine, Can collect information like coal like it is a natural resource. This also repeats the idea that the human mind will not have to contemplate what it is thinking because the information can be naturally produced. To continuously