The Shallows "Prologue" Chapter 1
The author of Understanding Media: The Extension of Man and the aphorism, "The Medium is the Message."
Who is Marshal McLuhan?
This new invention changed Nietzsche's writing style.
What is the writing ball?
This technology's intellectual ethic allowed humans to think in more abstract and conceptual ways.
What is the map?
Carr explains that when we go onto this we "enter an environment that promotes cursory reading-hurried and distracted thinking, and superficial learning."
What is the internet?
The term Johnson gives for his theory that popular culture had made us smarter all along, but we haven't noticed it.
What is the Sleeper Curve?
The thing that people focus on (even though they shouldn't) when a new medium appears.
What is the content?
The idea that the brain is not "fixed" and can constantly be reshaped by a person's actions, thoughts, and emotions.
What is neuroplasticity?
This technology's intellectual ethic allowed humans to think in terms of division and measurement.
What is the clock?
If unused, the brain recycles these for other, more pressing work.
What are neurons and synapses?
A term used by Johnson to describe the ability to learn by trial and error and extracting principles upon which to build one's knowledge.
What is probing?
The name of this large piece of construction equipment that Carr claims erases our doubts about computer screens.
What is the bulldozer?
Things in our brains that resemble how "Flowing water hollows out a channel for itself which grows broader and deeper; and when it later flows again, it follows the path traced by itself before."
What are the brain's vital paths?
These people believe that technology is a tool for human use and that humans have complete control over it.
Who are instrumentalists?
This particular type of short-term memory plays an instrumental role in the transfer of information into long-term memory and hence in the creation of our personal store of knowledge.
What is the working memory?
A term invented by Johnson to explain the ability to anticipate the next tasks in a gaming environment while still focusing on the current ones. Doing several actions with a key objective in mind.
What is telescoping?
The idea that thinking should occur in sequential steps and that a certain step must be completed in order move on to the next one.
What is linear thinking?
He thought that humans were born with a "blank slate" and that what we know comes entirely through our experiences.
Who is John Locke?
These people beleive that technology controls what humans do and has a profound influence over how people live their lives.
Who are determinists?
The depth of our intelligence hinges on our ability to transfer information from working memory to this.
What is the long-term memory?
The two attributes of video games that most focus on whenever something positive is mentioned about video games.
What are improved visual intelligence and manual dexterity? (also hand-eye coordination)
At the end of Chapter 1, Carr explains that he "misses" this.
What is his brain?
He thought that humans were born with "built-in mental templates" and that nature predominates when thinking about how humans understand the world.
Who is Immanuel Kant?
Every technology has one of these, a by-product or effect that may not show up until years later, after it has been invented. The inventory of the technology rarely considers it.
What is the technology's intellectual ethic?
Deciphering this substantially increases readers' cognitive load and hence weakens their ability to comprehend and retain what they're reading.
What is hypertext?
One of the disciplines that Johnson says he will draw upon to support his argument that pop culture is making us smarter.
What is.......
narrative theory
economics