Skills we are losing

Memorisation, spelling, handwriting and raw knowledge are some of the skills we are losing because of digital technology and the Internet — because of the machines. Is it really a big loss? Is our mind replacing them with other skills, ones that we are gaining precisely thanks to the technology, and that would be more relevant, more useful in the digital age?

We have almost given up on memorising raw data such as names of places and people, dates of events, and all kinds of information instantly available on the Internet search engines and in the gigantic databases the IT world has built. Even smartphone apps come to the rescue nowadays to tell us most everything we need to know.

When expecting a friend or relative to arrive at Queen Alia International Airport I recently stopped calling the old telephone-based information system to check the time of arrival, and instead I log on flightradar24.com that shows me, in real-time and in motion display, where the aircraft is in the sky and when it is about to land. Who needs a telephone then?

The same kind of change is taking place for handwriting and spelling. How many more years are schools going to teach the children these time-honoured skills? Devices write for you and correct your spelling. Even automatic language translation is being improved each year that passes, though — one must admit — we’re not entirely there yet, at least if you are looking for good, accurate translation with correct syntax and everything.

Talking about children, it is precisely watching them operate tablets, laptops and smartphones that is very informative, very enlightening. It’s all about speed apparently, not only in manipulating the devices with their hands but mainly when reacting, interacting, in other words thinking. On average a young teenager is twice as fast as a typical fifty-year old person, whatever he or she may be doing. So humans will be “faster”, overall, in the future.

Another skill the young generation may be gaining is an uncanny power to multi-task, to use a purely computer term. This is the ability to perform more than one task at one time. There is, however, a big debate about how sane this is, if these multiple tasks are being performed as well as if “processed” (another computer term) one by one, etc.

Hardly a week passes without news and updates in the media about the upcoming driverless car. From Toyota to Google, several giant corporations active either in the automotive or the IT sector are working, fighting relentlessly, investing gigantic funds, to be the first to commercialise a model to go on the street. Analysts estimate that driverless cars will be an affordable reality between 2030 and 2040. So we are also going to lose our driving skills too! 

Will we be smarter? Will our ability to analyse and make better decisions be improved in the future? Will we have more time for leisure or to go to the gym? One thing is certain: this is all making us different human beings, for better or for worse. And it is on us now.

This weekly column started exactly 23 years ago, to the day, when the first ChipTalk was published on November 5, 1992. Since then it has been on, uninterrupted, written by the same author, and today’s story is the 1,166th in the series.