In his book, Smarter than You Think: How Technology is changing our Minds for the
Better, Clive Thompson writes about how he thinks that advancements in technology is helping improve our intelligence rather than taking over our minds. Thompson uses the example of advanced chess to portray how amateur players who are able to better use technology triumph over professionals who aren’t. He explains that neither the computer nor the human is better at chess and that the victors are the humans who can work with the computers more efficiently.
Thompson goes on talk about how people are incorporating technology all the time in their daily lives and becoming more adaptable to advanced new tools. In addition, he mentions that he believes the three biggest impacts of technology nowadays are the ability to store countless amounts of ideas and information in the form of sites like Wikipedia, the ability to find and interpret data from numerous other thinkers through social media sites like twitter and facebook, and the ability to share material through blogs and posts throughout the internet. He also describes how the current progression in technology resembles that of the past and uses examples of how the first books and other forms of writing were refined and improved in order to be more resourcefully used by humans. Although Thompson endorses the idea that people work better with technology, he is aware of the downsides of a heavily technology based society and that these helpful and advanced tools can easily become a crutch for many people who do not understand that an important part of technology is realizing when not to rely on it. Thompson concludes by saying that when augmented with technology, people can become better, more intelligent versions of themselves but without it, they can also be left even smarter.