Are you using computers to augment your intellect?<p>For example, do you often write Python programs to make your life easier?<p>By augmenting the intellect I mean <i>increasing the capability of a man to approach a complex problem situation</i>.<p>It seems most people are using computers for entertainment and to connect to other people/ideas.<p>What do you think? Are we using computers to their full potential?<p>Are <i>you</i> leveraging the power of computers? How? Do you think knowing how to program would be useful to everyone?<p>I'm very curious.
The thing is almost everyone is using their computer to augment their intellect as you put it. Even if they don't realize it.<p>Everyone has used a spell-checker or Excel functions at least once.
1) The mind is an information processing device.<p>2) Programming enables me to modify information flows.<p>3) Therefore, I augment my intellect via hacking.<p>P.S. If the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis for programming languages is true, then my "actual" intellect is also changing.
The simplicity of the end result is why all programmers program.<p>Should my computer read my brain waves and makes decisions equal to the decision i make in my head. Yes, the user interfaces of the future will be this.<p>Have i taken the time to develop and implement the fundamentals. Of course not...the demand hasn't reached the point where it would be worth the overall effort involved.<p>Visionary leadership would be stepping too far in front of the crowd and results in a much higher risk.
I use Amazon.com's book reviews to avoid reading a lot of books and instead absorb the summaries and key points of the reviewers. Would you call that augmenting the intellect?
I don't yet think that most of
us are using information technologies to their full potential.<p>That being said, I can clearly mark the differences between how I was taught to perform thought functions growing up and how I do them now. The calculator on this iPhone and the scientific ones I access via hotkeys on my mac and of spring to mind. It is second nature to whir my hands across a keyboard to get a precise answer to a numeric problem than to try to calculate in my mind a best guestimate.<p>When I read something I want to access later, it goes into a bookmarking service. Or, I know easily the keywords to google it to find it later.<p>The most remarkable thing has been having my iPhone. Though its a cliché by now, having the internet in my pocket has been remarkable. I have near instant access to all of the world's information anywhere I am.<p>I definitely fall on the side of wannabe singulitarian, but even disregarding that, I see the increasingly powerful portable computation we carry with us as a positive sign we are increasingly incorporating computation into our sense of self and consciousness.