Saturday, October 25, 2008

"The discovery of the alphabet will create forgetfulness in the learner's souls,

because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves...You give your disciples not truth but only the semblance of truth; they will be heroes of many things, and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing." - Socrates, "Phaedrus"

I found this quote while reading Marshall McLuhan's "The Medium is the Massage" and as much as I want to, I can't say I disagree, at least not when speaking from the point of view of personal experience.

I have an awful, AWFUL memory when it comes to absolute facts. I used to joke that it took 12 introductions before I remembered my last girlfriend's name. My memory isn't THAT bad...but it's pretty horrible. However, what I do learn nearly instantly is WHERE to find particular pieces of information.

Is this the alphabet's fault?

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