@calebkramer pointed me to this book; as you might expect I find the subject matter fascinating, neuroscience/perception/culture and all. I'll be reading it.
I'm mostly just curious to see how he solves the problem of "not making the same Socrates-esque case that's been made for centuries, that '[insert new media here] is ruining humanity'."
"The best-selling author of The Big Switch returns with an explosive look at technology’s effect on the mind. “Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply? Now Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. Weaving insights from philosophy, neuroscience, and history into a rich narrative, The Shallows explains how the Net is rerouting our neural pathways, replacing the subtle mind of the book reader with the distracted mind of the screen watcher. A gripping story of human transformation played out against a backdrop of technological upheaval, The Shallows will forever alter the way we think about media and our minds"
If you've been following you may have discovered that I'm not too keen on dystopian/doomsday scenarios. I'll say again that if the future is going to be a scary place, well, it's been happening for centuries.
In fact, I watched this incredibly compelling video a few hours ago on scientific progress; perhaps not directly related to the above, but something along the lines of the goodness of progress:
