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Those little grey cells

March 23, 2017   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Do you remember Agatha Christie’s wonderful character, Hercule Poirot, the famous Belgian detective, with the elegant and carefully groomed moustache? Perhaps, once in a while, you watch a Poirot movie at home on an old movie channel or a DVD?

Good, then, you will also recall his preoccupation with his “little grey cells,” his mighty mind, into which he fed the collections of facts and speculation that added up to the surprising resolution to the crime at hand. Poirot was always concerned for the well being of those little grey cells and their considerable abilities.

Recently, I had the opportunity to witness an audition for the Dragons’ Den. Fascinating.

One of the applicants, other than the person whom I was accompanying, had designed a hot shot computer program (I guess) for changing the way in which we shop.

He was waiting his turn to present his ideas and had his computer set up where one could see it.

“What’s that?” I asked him.

“It’s the future!” he declared.

I mumbled something about everything in the stores being pretty well obsolete where they stood on their shelves by what was coming off the factory belts at any given moment – stopped and asked for further explanation.

He was ready to give it: “This will change how people shop,” he said emphatically. “Now they won’t have to think about what they buy. This will anticipate their needs and just send things to them.”

The not-so-long-term plan is that your smart refrigerator will know you are out of milk and see to it that arrives to your home in time. Likewise, apples, meat, bread – all of the type and quality which the machines in your life know you prefer. Presumably, something else will know that you need a new shirt or an outfit for an occasion ( if we continue to have occasions that we actually go to). Worn shoes? No problem. You will no longer need to control your money as your home and the banks’ computers can do all that for you, thus reducing the need to think or make decisions about anything personal.

This young man was down on thinking: “We millennials,” he boasted, “don’t want to think; we just want it all done for us.”

Heavens!, thought I. Shades of so much science fiction writing of the 20th Century with the final word on subject – sort of – being The Matrix, where the advancement of AI becomes so aggressive that humanity ceases to live, as such, but only within an all encompassing computer program. Strange to watch it in formation.

It all began with taking calculators into the classroom.

Then, memorizing the multiplication tables stopped.

Then, away went long division and, eventually, mathematics as we knew it, in the classroom.

At the same time, more or less, as machines became more and more a presence in the classroom, writing by hand – cursive writing – is either not empathized or not taught at all. Not to mention that the study of English is being reduced in many schools who are dodging the hard work of teaching Shakespeare.

Language is taking a beating as we invite Google translate to give us botched versions of what the other language is saying or how to respond. With this luxury, why would we study languages in the school?

Small children are being placed in front of computers (one configuration or another), their vision increasingly impaired – their understanding of the real world minimized by the idiot screens to which they become addicted at a ludicrously early age, gaining weight and poor health. Not even expected to live as long as their parents or grandparents are, due to their inactivity and unhealthy life style.

In fact, as we go along, as a species, not only are we rapidly eliminating the species with whom we are meant to share this planet, we are eliminating our own selves and those attributes which are so remarkable about us.

I am not a voice in the wilderness: there are many others ringing the bells of doom who are showing wonderful little films of people having a good time out in nature to impress upon modern parents of the value of such outings; real books are still being published; scientists and doctors are urging resistance the decline in mental and physical agility and  health.

So, herewith, my voice to say: teach your children to memorize the multiplication tables; to learn poetry by memory; the numbers are really handy and the work is good; press them to hand write note and stories; push them out the doors to play games born of their own imaginations; admit to yourselves that a child does not need to be a computer whiz before the age of … say seven?

Meanwhile, all that memory and hands-on work will develop those little grey cells and, perhaps, the children will learn to love them and want to keep them sharp.

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