More of less is more --->  Expanding on the less is more theme of
some of my previous posts, I think I will bring the discussion
back to some bit of social history and the tools we used in bygone
days.  There continues to be a raging debate as to whether our
smartphones/computers are making us dumber.  Rather than dissect and
examine the studies, I am going to throw in another talking point.
I think the more relevant question to ask is, as a society, are we
losing our ability to concentrate our minds?  Although I am not
going to go into too much depth with this discussion, but I should
say at the outset that I do not advocate returning to some type of
retrotopia.  Modern technology, when utilized responsibly, has
enhanced the lives of a great many people.  Ideally, progress and
prosperity should work in parallel, but then a certain threshold is
crossed when these two lines diverge and our lives become a
steaming mass of layered abstract complexity and our minds become
frittered away on meaningless pursuits.  At this point
technological progress has no longer added value to our lives.  We
have lost what were once essential skills and more importantly we
have lost our ability to concentrate our minds.  The following may
be somewhat indicative of the dumbing down of America:

	The Princeton Review, best known for its test preparation
	services, analyzed the vocabulary used by the
	presidential candidates in the campaign debates of 2000
	and compared it to the vocabulary levels used in earlier
	campaign debates.

	The Princeton Review obtained transcripts of the
	Gore-Bush debates, the Clinton-Bush-Perot debate of 1992,
	the Kennedy-Nixon debate of 1960, and the Lincoln-Douglas
	debate of 1858. It analyzed these transcripts using a
	standard vocabulary test that indicates the minimum
	educational level needed for a reader to understand a
	document. This test is ordinarily used to evaluate
	textbooks and other educational materials.

	The results? In the debates of 2000, George W. Bush spoke
	at a sixth-grade level (6.7); Al Gore spoke at a high
	seventh-grade level (7.9). In 1992, challenger Bill
	Clinton scored in the seventh grade (7.6), President
	George Bush in the sixth grade (6.8), and Ross Perot at a
	sixth-grade level (6.3).  According to the
	analysis, Abraham Lincoln expressed himself at the
	eleventh-grade level and Stephen A. Douglas at the
	twelfth-grade level.  Both Kennedy and Nixon placed at
	the tenth-grade level.

Let us not even discuss the latest rounds of debates.  It could be
rightly argued that the common vernacular in 1858 would be
considered obscure in todays language.  The bigger question,
however is has our use of language decayed to the point where
politicians have to talk to us at a level they think we will
understand?  Linguistically, can we articulate our thoughts as
clearly and concisely now as we once could in say 1858?  This is a
very small example and certainly not scientific.  In the realm of
mathematics, I could work out fairly complex problems with a pencil and
paper.  I know people say from the depression era who could work
out the same problems in their heads.  Millenials would resort to
Google or their smart phone to solve the same problem.  I am
certainly not laying the blame at the feet of our educational
system.  The point here is that as a society we are losing our
ability to focus and concentrate our minds.  I suspect in earlier
times, humans were not engaged in so many manifold activities hence
they could focus more clearly on the task at hand.  As a society,
have we set the educational bar lower and lower to fit what is a
seeming norm?

Having recently taken up the slide rule as perhaps a geeky hobby, I
have rediscovered in a small way the subtle relationship of
numbers and the rules that govern these relationships (at least in
a logarithmic way).  Perhaps there is some merit in taking things a
bit slower and only relying on outside devices when it truly adds value.
It's like walking to the neighborhood grocery store instead of
driving.  Not only do we get physical exercise, but we become more
intimate with the subtleties of the neighborhood we live in.  Or
like cracking kindling for the fire.  We learn which logs are the
easiest to split based on the straightness and uniformity of the
wood fibers.  It's an interesting tightrope we walk as people have
put their wisdom and experience out there on the net so other
people, like me, can find it on Google and apply it in ways to
simplify their lives.  Kind of a paradox if one thinks about it.


A device as simple as the slide rule was the main tool used by
architects and engineers that designed and built some of the
greatest marvels of the modern era.  It even got man to the moon.
the abacus is still in use today.  In ancient times, advanced Vedic
mathematics was done in the head alone.

We'll expand a bit more on this topic in a later post.