Passive cognizance: outsourcing thinking to computers

Product manufacturing went offshore from the US and Europe to China. Infotech services were outsourced to India. What is next in this flat world? [Even more] thinking could be outsourced to computers. Memory already has been…spelling, navigation, and fact recall, for example. Several forms of thinking have been already been outsourced to computers too, fraud detection and geological data review in oil exploration are the canonical examples. Passive cognizance could be the futurepath of humans; even more on autopilot than at present, behavior facilitated by personal digital assistants like SIRI based on continuous incoming lifecam and biomonitor data and utility function reassessment.

Involuntary Third Culture GroupThink?

Edge.org's third culture or Richard Florida's creative class, as technophiles might think of themselves, may be doing itself a disservice. It is de rigueur for everyone to read the same books, blogs and mags. Really, who has not read Blink, The World is Flat and Freakonomics in the last few months? And as the content is read, so are the memes spread.

Is there paralysis mired in GroupThink? How critically does the creative class think about new memes? Or are they just accepted because of the TechnoCelebrity status of the messenger? To the creative class' credit, they have a red hot sort for true innovation and these memes rise to the surface. But few are willing to call out mediocrity (e.g.; Friedman's under-edited vague analysis and conclusions from anecdotal evidence.)

The third culture is palpable and significant. Core knowledge can be assumed when speaking to the third culture the way topic knowledge can be assumed when speaking to a university major in a field.

Perhaps never before has there been such a large and growing group of people with such an extensive and shared meme-base. The shared meme-base may have some exciting emergent properties; one is that new memes can be absorbed, critiqued and assimilated with increasing, and dare I say accelerating speed. Information dissemination, absorption and action will all be quickened especially when coupled with machine tools, e.g.; instant wireless voting on policy issues.