Wu Guangqiang

    jw368@163.com

    INTELLIGENT gizmos and the Internet are increasingly dominating our world. The invisible and ubiquitous net enables us to extend our capabilities beyond limits. Space-time restrictions seem to have disappeared and with the digitalization of almost everything from knowledge, music and art to scenery, climate and human behaviors, human intelligence seems to have reached unprecedented heights.

    The Internet has greatly improved the quality and efficiency of our lives. But is our increasing dependence on the Internet making us smarter or dumber?

    This may be one of the most disputed yet least conclusive questions, as there are no reliable methods and criteria to measure the progress or retrogression of human intelligence. In a sense, it’s like judging who is smarter, Leonardo da Vinci, the versatile Italian genius of the Renaissance, or Steve Jobs, one of the greatest innovators of the Internet Age.

    An older person might admire a teen’s ability to use a computer or smartphone and marvel at how smart he or she seems, but chances are that that same “smart” teenager can’t handle daily living skills like making the bed, cooking a meal or solving an arithmetic problem.

    In essence, a relatively exact definition of intelligence is the key to deciding whether the Internet makes us smarter or dumber. One widely accepted definition goes, “Intelligence includes one’s capacity for logic, abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication, learning, emotional knowledge, memory, planning, creativity and problem solving.” A simpler definition refers to one’s ability to perceive, retain and then apply information.

    Is the Internet enhancing our capacity for logic, abstract thought, understanding, etc.? Who will be smarter, or more creative, in the future — a child who plays World of Warcraft or one who takes in knowledge from the real world?

    A brief review of the history of human evolution shows that human intelligence has been increasing as man braves endless challenges in nature and society. Constant manual labor has endowed people with nimble fingers, with which we create countless devices and machines. Complex situations force us to analyze, reason and make decisions.

    But delegating thinking tasks to the computer and the Internet will inevitably impair our intelligence. As we can frequently observe, many students have lost the ability to complete school assignments without the aid of the Internet. They can do nothing but search websites for reference material, or the answers, if available.

    Some students, though proficient in using the Internet, can hardly write a decent paper without cutting and pasting something from the Internet.

    My concern is that artificial intelligence is usurping the functions of the brain, our most important faculty.

    As an English teacher, I’ve noticed a disturbing phenomenon: the more devices my students have, the weaker their learning ability is.

    Of course, the Internet has become part of our life, so what we need to do is to take measures to avoid weakening our thinking power with over-dependence on the Internet. One of such lessons is the general deterioration of students’ computing power in the U.S. because of the excessive use of the calculator.

    The bottom line is that the Internet should be an aid to the brain, not a substitute for it. Education authorities should make it mandatory for schools to offer courses that require both manual labor and mental work without the use of the Internet.

    (The author is an English tutor and freelance writer.)