Socrates on writing:
For this invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use it, because they will not practice their memory. Their trust in writing, produced by external characters which are no part of themselves, will discourage the use of their own memory within them. You have invented an elixir not of memory, but of reminding; and you offer your pupils the appearance of wisdom, not true wisdom, for they will read many things without instruction and will therefore seem to know many things, when they are for the most part ignorant and hard to get along with, since they are not wise, but only appear wise.
The logical question, after hundreds of years of writing being the dominant way people learned, what the search engines like Bing and Google will do. I remember reading somewhere that the internet has caused people to forget information, but better remember how to find resources that will tell them that information. Seems as if history repeats.
Daniel Jackson 