Space-time tradeoff: I have an index deeper than I'd ever imagined when I started university, but everything is a search away and thus it takes time to find things and it won't be possible at all if I'm away from the internet. Cache is precious.
Of particular interest is languages. You really do need to have certain things to hand when you're talking to someone in a foreign language.
For most other things, it's perfectly fine to look it up.
This is a bit like complaining the kids aren't learning how to make a fire, or how a sliderule works. If you're conscious of the tradeoff you're making, it's ok.
No, you're missing the point. Our brains don't work like von Neumann machines with efficient architecture. What you can and cannot remember is a - still poorly understood - function of many variables, including the various neurotransmitters and hormones that get released when you browse your phone in bed, when you get a reaction to your online posts, when you get a notification,...
We might be messing with our brains more than we think, that's the point of this article.
Yeah, and countless people since prehistory have died or been significantly worse off because they simply didn't know better. Now we have science to help us figure things out before natural selection drives us away from unhealthy behaviour.
False. You can search for the arguments in favor of evolution, or some explanation for the fall of Rome, or why you should prefer composition over inheritance. You just have to remember that they're things people have thought about and roughly the outline. Doing a search will let you fill out the skeleton.
Previously if you were to opine on those subjects you would either need the information to hand, or look it up in one of a few books you happened to have near you.
The search will in all likelihood lead to better reasoning than if you did not have the internet to hand, assuming you know how to critique sources. For instance you might have forgotten some supporting evidence. This is a big assumption but it's pretty much what people should be practicing during education.
The thing you really need to practice in the modern world is judgement. You go online, read some sources, and now you have the problem of deciding which sources are worth listening to.
Of particular interest is languages. You really do need to have certain things to hand when you're talking to someone in a foreign language.
For most other things, it's perfectly fine to look it up.
This is a bit like complaining the kids aren't learning how to make a fire, or how a sliderule works. If you're conscious of the tradeoff you're making, it's ok.