Plato on how reading and writing make us more forgetful as we rely on this new technology:

> And so it is that you by reason of your tender regard for the writing that is your offspring have declared the very opposite of its true effect. If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls. They will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks.

▲

ofjcihen 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

I see this copy-pastad everywhere these days but it misses a huge point which is that written things don’t read or understand themselves.

	▲	hliyan 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Agreed. Past, unfounded worries about proliferation of new mental labour saving inventions is a real thing, but it's wrong to indiscrimately use the analogy every time a concern about such inventions come up. It reminds me of a certain type of developer who blurts out "premature optimization is the root of all evil" every time someone raises a performance concern at design time (I usually ask such people to complete the second part of that Knuth quote or shut up).
	▲	acoard a day ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Isn't that exactly what Plato's saying? The books cannot understand themselves, and we rely upon them, and in doing so that changes us.

▲

_dwt 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

"Yes, Socrates, you can easily invent tales of Egypt, or of any other country."