Informing Ourselves To Death: "I might add, by way of another historical example, that Johann Gutenberg was by all accounts a devoted Christian who would have been horrified to hear Martin Luther, the accursed heretic, declare that printing is 'God's highest act of grace, whereby the business of the Gospel is driven forward.' Gutenberg thought his invention would advance the cause of the Holy Roman See, whereas in fact, it turned out to bring a revolution which destroyed the monopoly of the Church.
We may well ask ourselves, then, is there something that the masters of computer technology think they are doing for us which they and we may have reason to regret? I believe there is, and it is suggested by the title of my talk, 'Informing Ourselves to Death.' In the time remaining, I will try to explain what is dangerous about the computer, and why. And I trust you will be open enough to consider what I have to say. Now, I think I can begin to get at this by telling you of a small experiment I have been conducting, on and off, for the past several years. There are some people who describe the experiment as an exercise in deceit and exploitation but I will rely on your sense of humor to pull me through.
Here's how it works: It is best done in the morning when I see a colleague who appears not to be in possession of a copy of The New York Times. 'Did you read The Times this morning?,' I ask. If the colleague says yes, there is no experiment that day. But if the answer is no, the experiment can proceed. 'You ought to look at Page 23,' I say. 'There's a fascinating article about a study done at Harvard University.' 'Really? What's it about?' is the usual reply. My choices at this point are limited only by my imagination. But I might say something like this: 'Well, they did this study to find out what foods are best to eat losing weight, and it turns out that a normal diet supplemented by chocolate eclairs, eaten six times a day, is the best approach. It seems that there's some special nutrient in the eclairs -- encomial dioxin -- that actually uses up calories at an incredible rate.
Another possibility, which I like to use with colleagues who are known to be health conscious is this one: 'I think you'll want to know about this,' I say. 'The neuro-physiologists at the University of Stuttgart have uncovered a connection between jogging and reduced intelligence. They tested more than 1200 people over a period of five years, and found that as the number of hours people jogged increased, there was a corresponding decrease in their intelligence. They don't know exactly why but there it is.'
I'm sure, by now, you understand what my role is in the experiment: to report something that is quite ridiculous -- one might say, beyond belief. Let me tell you, then, some of my results: Unless this is the second or third time I've tried this on the same person, most people will believe or at least not disbelieve what I have told them. Sometimes they say: 'Really? Is that possible?' Sometimes they do a double-take, and reply, 'Where'd you say that study was done?' And sometimes they say, 'You know, I've heard something like that.'"