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BEHAVIOR & SOCIETY

Is Smart

Technology

Making Us

Dumb?

Yes and no: there are reasonable arguments

on both sides of the question

W

e still haven’t grappled with the deep

questions Nicholas Carr brought to pub-

lic attention in his seminal book, The

Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our

Brains (2010). Is the Internet making us dumb? Is

the technology causing us cognitive loss or debili-

tation? Carr focused on the Internet, which is, by

design, a dumb technology—a general-purpose

digital communication infrastructure that pushed

“intelligence” to the ends of the network.

Since my own book Re-Engineering Humanity,

co-authored by Evan Sellinger, was published, I’m

often asked: Is smart technology making us

dumb? My first reaction is to bounce a few ques-

tions back. Can technology really be smart? Is

your question whether our use of certain technol-

ogies is making us dumb? Or is your question

about technology companies?

Eventually, I return to the original question and

respond like a lawyer: It depends. It’s yes in some

ways and no in others. Before addressing it, we

must acknowledge the conceptual mistake of

boiling intelligence down to a binary—smart ver-

sus dumb—as if it exists on a single dimension.

There are many different types of intelligence that

matter, and how technology affects different types

also varies considerably.

Once I’m done meandering, however I answer

yes. I believe we may be making ourselves dumb-

er when we outsource thinking and rely on sup- GUIDO MIETH

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Brett Frischmann is Charles Widger Endowed University Professor

in Law, Business and Economics at Villanova University. His books

include Re-Engineering Humanity and the novel Shepard’s Drone.

Opinion