Reading Response for January 23
I remember realizing at some point during my senior math class in High School that without the help of my ridiculously over-complicated TI-83+ calculator, I would be completely out to sea. On the off occasion that I actually understood what my teacher was talking about, I needed it to do most of the basic calculations because I never bothered to learn things like multiplication tables or the method for dividing long numbers. The calculator even had a small variety of simple video games that I could play when I didn’t feel like paying attention, which was quite often. Looking back, I can see how my relationship with that calculator was very similar to what J.C.R. Licklider talks about in his article Man-Computer Symbiosis
In that particular example, my calculator was able to accomplish a set of limited tasks that I, being a lazy math hating high schooler was not. Licklider’s article isn’t quite as forward thinking as Bush’s was, but he still puts an interesting perspective on some of the more practical aspects of computing that allow the average non-computer science expert to use computers successfully. It’s easy to get so into our philosophical discussions about the power of computers to expand human thought that sometimes we forget that at their most basic level, computers exist to do things faster and more efficiently than a human can. His most interesting and illuminating example of this is his discussion of the “trie” memory system, which seems to share many of the same principles that windows does, showing that user-friendliness would eventually become more important as computers got more and more complicated.
On some level I found Licklider’s article to be a little troubling when I held it up against my own experience with computers. It’s true that computers are an extremely efficient means by which to transfer and receive information, but at some point does this relationship turn from symbiotic to infantilizing? Going back to my example about the calculator. It wasn’t that I was incapable of learning basic math skills, I just never had to. I guess the main thing I’m wondering is what effect our constant interaction with computers has on our ability and desire to acquire knowledge on our own. It will be interesting to see where things go in the future and whether Licklider’s ideas about symbiosis are used to more fully integrate computers into day to day life away from the computer desk and what further effects that might have on the human psyche.
-Andy
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