

Our Cluttered Minds - avinassh
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/06/books/review/Lehrer-t.html?_r=1

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mrdrozdov
In Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, the story is retold with Harry
having a loving Biochemistry Professor as a stepfather rather than the
begrudged Vernon Dursley. This has the strange consequence of Harry learning
rationality theory at a very young age, becoming somewhat of an intellectual
prodigy. By the time he is thrust into the world of magic, he realizes the
untapped potential of magic almost immediately. Untapped in the sense that
many wizards and witches before him had never considered the wonders that
magic may enable.

The internet is our current version of magic. We have grown up as it has grown
up. We have to deal with it as an intrusion rather than another tool for
learning like a book. Less than fifty years from now, the internet will be
refined and beautiful in ways we have had no reason yet to imagine. Fresh
minds will approach it as Harry approaches magic. With nothing to lose, but so
much to gain.

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RyanMcGreal
Sidenote: Jonah Lehrer flamed out pretty spectacularly in 2012 after it
emerged that he had distorted and fabricated some of the information in his
book _Imagine_.

~~~
Apocryphon
That's a bit of an ad hominem for a book review of a book that he didn't
write, isn't it?

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JSeymourATL
Google, in other words, isn’t making us stupid — it’s exercising the very
mental muscles that make us smarter. *Larry & Sergey will love that!

