Reading is not passive. You have to actively apply your mind to convert the symbols on the page into words and the words into meaning. Two dimensional representations of concepts on the page (written words) result in images (both moving and static) and abstract thoughts in the mind. Even audio works like that – music or spoken words or audio books (you often vocalise the words that you read). I\u2019m not sure how art and photography work, though I guess they\u2019re not passive either \u2013 you take out more than is apparent in the picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Simple thought \u2013 the process of sitting quietly and thinking, is sometimes passive, sometimes active. The background chatter, thought without volition – passive. Ideation, imagination, planning, conceptualisation, meditation \u2013 active.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But video is different. You are passively consuming the moving images on the screen; there is little time or need to process them. That is why reading stimulates the mind, and video numbs it. The Internet is even worse, because your mind is manipulated and led to consume content passively, and you\u2019re not allowed to apply the mind for sustained periods of directed attention that result in learning, insights, creativity, new neuronal connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now the web 3.0 is coming, we are told (I was reading The Spatial Web<\/em> by Gabriel Rene and Dan Mapes). With AR, everything you see will be tagged and loaded with information. You never see anything without passively consuming content that someone else has deemed fit for you to ingest. With VR, you will go further; you will be immersed in it, without having to make an effort to imagine, think.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m no luddite \u2013 AR especially is alluring. Imagine being stuck with a broken-down bike on a lonely road; an AI in the cloud sees the bike engine through your AR glasses, and walks you through the repair, with coloured arrows and interactive, dynamic exploded diagrams overlaid on the physical engine. (\u201cNot clockwise you idiot, you\u2019re tightening it! Anticlockwise.\u201d) Or you look at a person and their FB profile appears, hovering over their head. (Yes, creepy.) It\u2019s like gnanadhrishti, giving you the power to see sookshma loka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But what does it do the mind? In the movie WALL-E<\/em>, humans become obese and incapable of moving on their own because machines do all the work. That is unlikely. What is far more likely and alarming is that human minds become incapable of thinking on their own because the web (connected, all-pervasive AI and distractions) does it all for them. And I think this has happened to a great extent already with web 2.0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Reading is not passive. You have to actively apply your mind to convert the symbols on the page into words and the words into meaning. Two dimensional representations of concepts on the page (written words) result in images (both moving and static) and abstract thoughts in the mind. Even audio works like that – music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-speculations","post-preview"],"yoast_head":"\n