Google 把我們變傻了？

互聯網似無邊無際又魔力無窮的信息宇宙，人類幾千年的文明成果輕而易舉地就被囊括其中。而網絡搜索引擎就如通向這個宇宙的“時空機器”——簡單的關鍵字，輕輕的點擊，便可讓它載著你的思維到達任何你想去的理想之地。但就像大多數科技成果都是雙刃劍一樣，網絡科技的飛速發展在解放我們腦細胞的同時，也在悄無聲息但卻根本性地改變著我們的思維方式:你是否覺得越來越難以集中注意力?你是否覺得讀一本書甚至是一篇長點的文章都變得越來越吃力?你是否覺得離開了Google，單憑自己，干什么都不容易?小心!網絡正在以你無法想象的方式改變著你……

Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone， or something， has been tinkering1) with my brain， remapping the neural circuitry， reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going， but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument， and I’d spend hours strolling2) through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety3)， lose the thread4)， begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward5) brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.

Who Stole My Concentration? 誰“偷”走了我的專注力?

I think I know what’s going on. For more than a decade now， I’ve been spending a lot of time online， searching and surfing and sometimes adding to the great databases of the Internet. The Web has been a godsend6) to me as a writer. Research that once required days in the stacks or periodical rooms of libraries can now be done in minutes. A few Google searches， some quick clicks on hyperlinks， and I’ve got the telltale7) fact or pithy quote I was after.

For me， as for others， the Net is becoming a universal medium， the conduit8) for most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears and into my mind. The advantages of having immediate access to such an incredibly rich store of information are many. But they come at a price. Media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought， but they also shape the process of thought. And what the Net seems to be doing is chipping9) away my capacity for concentration and contemplation10). My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver11) in the sea of words. Now I zip12) along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski13).

We Are How We Read如何閱讀決定著我們如何思維

Thanks to the ubiquity14) of text on the Internet， we may well be reading more today than we did in the past. But it’s a different kind of reading， and behind it lies a different kind of thinking—perhaps even a new sense of the self. “We are not only what we read，” says Maryanne Wolf， a developmental psychologist at Tufts University. “We are how we read.” Wolf worries that the style of reading promoted by the Net， a style that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy15)” above all else， may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep reading that emerged when an earlier technology， the printing press， made long and complex works of prose commonplace. When we read online， she says， we tend to become “mere decoders of information”. Our ability to interpret text， to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction， remains largely disengaged16).

Reading， explains Wolf， is not an instinctive skill for human beings. It’s not etched17) into our genes the way speech is. We have to teach our minds how to translate the symbolic characters we see into the language we understand. And the media or other technologies we use in learning and practicing the craft of reading play an important part in shaping the neural circuits inside our brains.

The Internet promises to have particularly far-reaching effects on cognition. In a paper published in 1936， the British mathematician Alan Turing proved that a digital computer could be programmed to perform the function of any other information-processing device. And that’s what we’re seeing today. The Internet， an immeasurably powerful computing system， is subsuming18) most of our other intellectual technologies. It’s becoming our map and our clock， our printing press and our typewriter， our calculator and our telephone， and our radio and TV.

Never has a communications system played so many roles in our lives—or exerted such broad influence over our thoughts—as the Internet does today. Yet， for all that’s been written about the Net， there’s been little consideration of how， exactly， it’s reprogramming us.

Google’s Mission Vs Our ChoiceGoogle的使命Vs我們的選擇

The Internet is a machine designed for the efficient and automated collection， transmission， and manipulation of information， and its legions19) of programmers are intent20) on finding the “one best method” to carry out every mental movement of what we’ve come to describe as “knowledge work.”

Google has declared that its mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” It seeks to develop “the perfect search engine”， which it defines as something that “understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you want.” In Google’s view， information is a kind of commodity， a utilitarian21) resource that can be mined and processed with industrial efficiency. The more pieces of information we can “access” and the faster we can extract their gist22)， the more productive we become as thinkers.

Where does it end? Sergey Brin and Larry Page， the gifted young men who founded Google， speak frequently of their desire to turn their search engine into an artificial intelligence， a machine that might be connected directly to our brains. In a 2004 interview with Newsweek， Brin said， “Certainly if you had all the world’s information directly attached to your brain， or an artificial brain that was smarter than your brain， you’d be better off23).”

Still， their easy assumption that we’d all “be better off” if our brains were supplemented， or even replaced， by an artificial intelligence is unsettling. It suggests a belief that intelligence is the output of a mechanical process， a series of discrete24) steps that can be isolated， measured， and optimized. In Google’s world， the world we enter when we go online， there’s little place for the fuzziness25) of contemplation. Ambiguity26) is not an opening for insight but a bug27) to be fixed. The human brain is just an outdated computer that needs a faster processor and a bigger hard drive.

The idea that our minds should operate as high-speed data-processing machines is not only built into the workings of the Internet， it is the network’s reigning business model as well. The faster we surf across the Web—the more links we click and pages we view—the more opportunities Google and other companies gain to collect information about us and to feed us advertisements. Most of the proprietors of the commercial Internet have a financial stake28) in collecting the crumbs29) of data we leave behind as we flit30) from link to link—the more crumbs， the better. The last thing these companies want is to encourage leisurely reading or slow， concentrated thought. It’s in their economic interest to drive us to distraction.

Human Intelligence—What We Can’t Sacrifice智能無法取代智慧

Maybe I’m just a worrywart31). Just as there’s a tendency to glorify32) technological progress， there’s a countertendency33) to expect the worst of every new tool or machine. In Plato’s Phaedrus， Socrates bemoaned34) the development of writing. He feared that， as people came to rely on the written word as a substitute for the knowledge they used to carry inside their heads， they would “cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful.” And because they would be able to “receive a quantity of information without proper instruction，” they would “be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part quite ignorant.” They would be “filled with the conceit of wisdom instead of real wisdom.” Socrates wasn’t wrong， but he was shortsighted. He couldn’t foresee the many ways that writing and reading would serve to spread information， spur fresh ideas， and expand human knowledge (if not35) wisdom).

So， yes， you should be skeptical of my skepticism. Perhaps those who dismiss critics of the Internet as Luddites36) or nostalgists37) will be proved correct， and from our hyperactive， data-stoked38) minds will spring a golden age of intellectual discovery and universal wisdom. But the Net isn’t the alphabet， and although it may replace the printing press， it produces something altogether different. The kind of deep reading that a sequence of printed pages promotes is valuable not just for the knowledge we acquire from the author’s words but for the intellectual vibrations those words set off39) within our own minds. In the quiet spaces opened up by the sustained， undistracted reading of a book， or by any other act of contemplation， for that matter， we make our own associations， draw our own inferences and analogies， foster our own ideas. Deep reading， as Maryanne Wolf argues， is indistinguishable from deep thinking.

If we lose those quiet spaces， or fill them up with “content”， we will sacrifice something important not only in ourselves but in our culture. And as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world， it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence.

在過去的幾年里，我總有一種坐立不安的感覺，覺得好像有什么人或什么東西一直在鼓搗我的大腦，將我的神經回路重新布了一下局，然后重新安排了我的記憶。我的思考力并沒有消失，但卻在發生變化。我不再像過去那樣思考了。這種感覺在我讀書時尤為強烈。過去，埋頭于一本書或一篇長文章是輕而易舉的事。我的思維會為文章的敘事描寫與論證的峰回路轉所吸引，我會連續幾個小時沉浸在長篇的散文中流連忘返。然而，這樣的經歷卻越來越少了。如今，剛翻兩三頁書，我就開始心不在焉。我變得煩躁不安，找不到頭緒，開始四處張望，總想干點別的什么。我感覺自己好像總是得把不聽話的大腦強行拉回到書本中。以往自然而然的靜心潛讀已經變成了一種掙扎。

我想我知道這是怎么回事兒。在過去的十多年里，我在網上花費的時間很多，搜索、沖浪，有時還為互聯網龐大的數據庫貢獻點一己之力。對我這個作家而言，網絡簡直是天賜之物。過去需要在圖書館或期刊室里花上數天做的研究，如今只要幾分鐘便可搞定。稍微試幾個Google搜索，輕松點幾個超級鏈接——我想要的八卦新聞或經典格言便唾手可得。

對我來說(對其他人也一樣)，網絡正在成為一個全球性的媒體，它就像是一個運送信息的管道，絕大多數信息經由它進入我的眼睛和耳朵，最后進入我的大腦。在轉瞬間獲得如此令人難以置信的海量信息，其優勢不勝枚舉，但代價也隨之而來。媒體可不只是被動的信息渠道，它們提供思想內容，但同時也塑造思維模式。網絡現在正在做的，就是削弱我的專注力和思考力。現在，我的大腦在獲取信息時，正是按照網絡傳播信息的方式來進行的:快速移動，就像粒子流。過去，我像個潛水者，在文字的海洋里潛游;而現在，我就像一個騎著摩托艇的家伙，在海面上呼嘯著前行。

得益于網絡上無處不在的文字，我們今天的閱讀量與過去不可同日而語。但這是不一樣的閱讀，隱藏在這種閱讀之后的又是不一樣的思維——甚至可能是對自我的一種新認識。“塑造我們的不僅僅是閱讀的內容，”塔夫斯大學的發展心理學家瑪麗安娜·沃爾夫說，“還有閱讀的方式。”沃爾夫擔心，網絡所推崇的將“效率”和“直觀”置于一切之上的閱讀方式可能會削弱我們深度閱讀的能力，這種能力隨印刷這種早期技術的產生而形成，而正是印刷技術將長篇、復雜的作品變得日漸普及。她說，當我們在網上閱讀時，我們更像是“純粹的信息解碼者”。而我們理解文字的能力——那種潛心深讀時思如泉涌的能力——大部分都沒派上用場。

沃爾夫解釋說，閱讀不是人類與生俱來的一種技能。它不像說話一樣是天生就融進我們的基因里的。我們必須教會我們的大腦如何將我們看到的符號轉化為可以理解的語言。而我們平時用來學習和練習閱讀技巧的媒體和其他技術，對于我們塑造我們大腦里的神經回路發揮著重要作用。

因特網很有可能對我們的認知能力產生意義深遠的影響。1936年，英國數學家艾倫·圖林在他發表的論文中證明，只要編程得當，數字電腦可以發揮其他任何信息處理設備所具備的功能。而這正是我們今天所看到的。因特網，一個無比強大的計算系統，正將我們這個時代其他大部分的智能工具吸納進來，與自身融為一體。它正成為我們的地圖和時鐘，我們的印刷術和打字機，我們的計算器和電話，以及我們的收音機和電視機。

從沒有一個通信系統像今天的網絡一樣在我們的生活中扮演著如此眾多的角色——或對我們的思想施加著如此廣泛的影響。然而，盡管有很多人就網絡這個話題著書立說，卻很少有人考慮過因特網到底會怎樣改變我們。

因特網是一個為迅速、自動地收集、傳輸和處理信息而設計的機器。它的眾多編程人員專注于尋找“一種最好的方式”來執行每一件腦力勞動，也就是我們所形容的“智力工作”。

Google就宣布說它的使命是“組織全世界的信息，并使其成為人人都能獲得的、有用的信息”。它致力于打造一個“完美的搜索引擎”，用它自己的話說，就是“準確領會你的意圖，精確反饋你想要的信息”。在Google看來，信息也是一種商品，是一種可以以工業的高效方式進行采掘和加工的有用資源。我們獲得的信息越多，提取其精華的速度越快，就會成為越高產的思想者。

那何處是盡頭?Google的創始人謝爾蓋·布林和拉里·佩奇，兩個天資聰穎的年輕人，暢談著他們將把他們的搜索引擎打造成人工智能的引擎，一個也許可以直接和大腦相聯接的機器。2004年，在接受《新聞周刊》采訪時，布林說:“當然，如果你能讓世界上所有的信息和你的大腦相聯接，或擁有一個比你的大腦還聰明的人工大腦的話，你就會變得更加富有。”

然而，這樣的輕松假設——如果我們的大腦得到人工智能的補充甚至被人工智能取代的話，我們將“更加富有”的假設——很是令人不安。這種想法反映了一種思維，即智力只是機械過程的產物，不過由一系列可分割、可測量和可最優化的單獨步驟組成。在Google的世界——我們上網時所進入的世界——里，基本沒有給深入思考時的混亂思維留什么空間。模棱兩可不是通向敏銳心智的大門，不過是需要修補的補丁罷了。人類大腦只是一個過時的電腦，它需要一個更快的處理器和一個更大的硬盤。

人腦應當像高速運轉的數據處理器一樣運轉——這種想法不僅僅根植在因特網工作方式中，而且在整個網絡商業模式中也占有統治地位。我們在網上沖浪的速度越快——點擊的鏈接和瀏覽的網頁越多——Google和其他公司收集我們資料并塞給我們廣告的機會就越大。絕大多數商業網站的經營者都會通過收集我們快速瀏覽頁面后留下的零碎數據“痕跡”獲得金融利益——我們留下的數據“痕跡”越多越好。這些公司最不鼓勵的就是休閑閱讀或緩慢、專注的思考。讓我們注意力分散恰好符合他們的經濟利益。

或許我只是庸人自擾。就像是總有擁護者為科技進步歌功頌德一樣，也必然會有反對者預期著每一件新工具或新機器所帶來的最壞結果。在柏拉圖的作品《對話篇·菲德洛斯》中，蘇格拉底為寫作的發展哀嘆不已。他擔心當人們依賴于書面文字并以此取代他們過去常儲存于大腦中的知識時，人們將“不再使用記憶力，并因此而變得健忘”。而且，由于他們“在沒有適當指導的情況下接受大量信息”，他們會“被誤以為知識淵博，雖然通常情況下一無所知”;他們會“自以為聰明無比，盡管實際上毫無智慧”。蘇格拉底說得沒錯，但他的確缺乏遠見。他沒有預見到寫作和閱讀能以如此眾多的方式推動信息傳播，啟發新的思想，擴展人類知識(甚至是智慧)。

所以，是的，你應該對我的疑慮持懷疑態度。或許那些將批判網絡的人斥為反工業主義或懷舊主義者的人是正確的，或許從我們極度活躍、靠數據汲取營養的大腦中會爆發出知識大發現以及全人類智慧大發展的黃金時代。然而，網絡不是字母表，盡管它可能會取代印刷機，但它生產出的畢竟是完全不同的產品。印刷產品所推動的深度閱讀彌足珍貴，不僅是因為我們從作者的文字中獲取了知識，還因為那些文字在我們頭腦中激起了智慧的共鳴。因此，在一個由持續的、不被打擾的閱讀或其他思考活動所打開的安靜空間里，我們將建立起我們自己的聯系，進行我們自己的推論和比較，醞釀我們自己的想法。深度閱讀，正如瑪麗安娜·沃爾夫所說，與深度思考密不可分。

如果我們喪失了這些安靜的空間，或在其中填滿所謂的“內容”，我們將為此而作出犧牲。而我們犧牲掉的東西，不僅對我們自己重要，對我們的文化也極為重要。當我們依賴電腦來塑造我們對世界的理解時，退化為人工智能的，將是我們自身的智慧。