smart or stupid

Technology often divides us into techno-optimists and techno-skeptics. The optimists, as exemplified by a recent Reuters news article, believe for example that the Internet will make us smarter and that technology has an overwhelmingly positive effect on the human species. After all, ever since our Cro-Magnon fore-fathers left the caves it has been technology which has provided not only our food and shelter but almost everything else above and beyond — from the iPod in your pocket to the International Space Station (ISS) in orbit. It allows us to travel vast distances in short periods of time, to communicate instantaneously across continents and to live on average 3 times longer than the ancient Greeks. It is hard to deny that technology makes our lives easier, more comfortable and more pleasant. But does technology make us smart or stupid? Is it, [...]