The internet is making us stupid

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The internet is making us stupid

04 Nov 2010

Why Now

Voltaire’s Doctor Pangloss – he of “best of all possible worlds” fame – pointed out that we shouldn’t bemoan Columbus’ return from America with syphilis because he also came back with chocolate. Jeremy O’Grady, in our IQ2 Hong Kong debate, asks us to believe that the Internet is similar: a lot of chocolate, but much we would prefer not to be saddled with. More specifically, the essentials that an intelligent culture needs to reproduce itself is being undermined by the Internet. Kaiser Kuo, Beijing-based heavy metal singer and director of the big Chinese search portal, Baidu, disagrees. Who is the “us” being made stupid? If it is the rich gentleman in his study immersed in Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason that we’re losing, while gaining access to knowledge for millions, then the world is coming out the richer for it.

You’re reading and watching this debate online. If your mind is swayed, have you entered the territory of the paradox of the Cretan liar? “All Cretans are liars” said Epimenides, the Cretan philosopher. Can you, who have web-surfed your way to this, intelligently be persuaded that “Websurfing has made us stupid”? Listen to Jeremy O’Grady wriggle out of the paradox.

Event information

This IQ2 Asia debate took place at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on Thursday, October 28, 2010. Highlights will be available soon, and full video is now available for our Premium Members.

First vote: 108 For, 190 Against, 52 Don't know

Final vote: 177 For, 180 Against, 5 Don't know

Speakers for the motion

Jeremy O'Grady

Co-founder of Intelligence Squared and Editor-in-Chief of The Week
Thomas Crampton

Former journalist, popular blogger, now Asia-Pacific Director of 360 Digital Influence for Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide