In the 1990's, as personal computers got more affordable, and more people had access to the internet, the internet really was a bit of a wild west. People loved going online, and connecting with other people, but there was a general debate happening about what the internet might mature into.

There were some who thought the internet was a passing fad, that would go away. There were others who thought the internet would be a new era for humanity, where all human knowledge would be available, and people would be more intelligent than ever.

It's been about 30 or even 40 years now since that conversation started appearing on people's CRT TV sets over their local news stations and talk shows, and I think we've spent enough time that we have an answer. The answer is yes. The internet is whatever people want it to be. For some, it's entertainment that they go on, and loose interest in, some it's an infinite knowledge resource, for some it's just a way to connect with friends, but there is an option that has emerged that really worries me.

For some, the internet has simply become a way of outsourcing their need to think. When they have a problem, or a question, rather than working it out, and trying to learn, they just look up an answer. Maybe it's the right answer, maybe it's not, but they get an answer. Of course we can, and should use the internet to learn, there ais so much available, but the kind of person I'm describing, just wants a quick and easy answer. They will allow Google, or a 12 year old Reddit post, or now ChatGPT do the thinking for them, and will accept the answer they get at face value, without looking any deeper.

This has lead to some people who firmly hold onto wild ideas, cooked up in Facebook groups, or even blatent, intentional misinformation. If you want a quick and easy answer, and aren't willing to take any resposability in that learning, there will always be someone out there willing to answer you with something they can profit off of.

Word of caution at this point: Some of these people will claim to do their own research. However, unless they have a lab in their basement, and ready access to participents and control groups, they are in fact not doing their own research. They're at best reading books, at worst, reading social media posts. Here they easily fall to confirmation bias, only looking at sources they already agree with, and disregarding anything that makes them question their current understanding.

This is not learning. This is simply having others think for you.

We must be willing to look at, and properly evaluate information that goes against our understanding. This doesn't mean agreeing with it, it means giving it the attention it deserves to truely assess if it makes sense, or not. It means checking against other sources, seeing if claims they make can be verified or not. It means not just passing something off as "dumb" or "nonsense" but asking why, and looking under the hood to see why things are the way they are, why people do what they do, and assess if it's correct, misinformed, or outright malicious.

The word "autodidact" has become a bit trendy lately. I want to distiguish between two sorts of people:

Your car has issues. One sort of person simply doesn't want to deal with it. They'll take it to repair shop, pay what is asked, and barely know or care about any of the details. The second sort of person will invesigate. Even if they know nothing about cars, they know how to learn. They can look up the information, diagnose the issue (verify to make sure their diagnosis is correct), and figure out how to fix the problem themselves, and maybe even how to prevent it in the future.

The first person doesn't want to think, they just want solutions. The second person is curious. They feel a need to know and understand. The internet has the portential to make a lot more of the second kind of person. Unfortunately, because easy answers (whether correct or not) have become so available over the internet, it has made a lot more of the first kind of person, people who outsource their thinking to someone else.