Thoughts on Change

I was reading somewhere (who knows where, I read so many blogs and magazines and books, I really lose track) Anyways, I read that people’s memory today is appalling compared to those of trained folk in ancient Greek. Then actors, who were not always literate, could recall and declaim verses thousands of lines long. Today, we can barely remember the lyrics to an entire song, but we can find them, with two clicks on our iphone. In Holland, their high school graduates are being tested not on knowledge, but on access. They go into the test with all their computers and gadgets and then are given a topic about which they know nothing, and are timed to research and create a paper/discussion about it. I think that’s what future knowledge is going to be – not memory but access. I look at my son, all of 12, who checks on his phone what rating a restaurant received, and then matches his experience against the Zagat numbers, to see if he agrees or not. No one needs to remember phone numbers any more, we just press contacts and the name pops up. Even with Kindle, (which I just got and love, but more of that another day) my main problem with it is in the recall system – it relies on me remembering a book just by the title - without cover or blurb; and the title is rarely enough for me to remember the book. Sometimes it is, but not a new author, or a series author (I don’t know which Prey book is which, the titles are meaningless to me there.)

 So I think the future is all about knowledge and access. Stories that made sense even 25 years ago, don’t make sense anymore (he moved away so she couldn’t find him.. in today’s world, she could search for 30 mins on google and there he would be) People can aggregate around the weirdest/most poignant issues – read Sufi poets in a Midwestern town of 600? I can find you 600 likeminded friends, only a chat room away. As we become more and more individual in our quirks and needs, we are less and less alone, finding people just like us no matter where we (or they) live.

And I like that. This is change I can live with. You can buy the clothes you like, the books you like, even the food you like (steaks? Marshmallows? And williams Sonoma site will send you the most amazing things) You can find the information you need and the people like you,  and without being limited by geography.