Derek Thompson

And as he changes, he begins to have fights with the elders in his tribe when they tell one story and he can consult a written document that tells another. And the story by Ted Chiang, The Truth of Fact, The Truth of Feeling, essentially pings between these two narratives.

Two different technologies introduced in two different societies, re-mem versus reading, looking at how they change the texture of our relationship to ideas. That's the sci-fi story, in any case. In reality, we don't have anything like technologically perfect photographic memory. And in many cases, we seem to be losing reading as well.

Two different technologies introduced in two different societies, re-mem versus reading, looking at how they change the texture of our relationship to ideas. That's the sci-fi story, in any case. In reality, we don't have anything like technologically perfect photographic memory. And in many cases, we seem to be losing reading as well.

Two different technologies introduced in two different societies, re-mem versus reading, looking at how they change the texture of our relationship to ideas. That's the sci-fi story, in any case. In reality, we don't have anything like technologically perfect photographic memory. And in many cases, we seem to be losing reading as well.

Leisure reading, by some accounts, has declined by half so far in this century alone. Literacy scores are declining for fourth and eighth graders at alarming rates. And even college students today are complaining to teachers and professors that they can't read entire books at, say, Columbia University because they were never taught to read entire books in high school or middle school.

Leisure reading, by some accounts, has declined by half so far in this century alone. Literacy scores are declining for fourth and eighth graders at alarming rates. And even college students today are complaining to teachers and professors that they can't read entire books at, say, Columbia University because they were never taught to read entire books in high school or middle school.

Leisure reading, by some accounts, has declined by half so far in this century alone. Literacy scores are declining for fourth and eighth graders at alarming rates. And even college students today are complaining to teachers and professors that they can't read entire books at, say, Columbia University because they were never taught to read entire books in high school or middle school.

The book itself, that ancient piece of technology for storing ideas passed down across decades, is fading in curricula across the country, replaced by film and TV and YouTube. So why does this matter? Why, with everything happening in this country and around the world, would I be interested in reading?

The book itself, that ancient piece of technology for storing ideas passed down across decades, is fading in curricula across the country, replaced by film and TV and YouTube. So why does this matter? Why, with everything happening in this country and around the world, would I be interested in reading?

The book itself, that ancient piece of technology for storing ideas passed down across decades, is fading in curricula across the country, replaced by film and TV and YouTube. So why does this matter? Why, with everything happening in this country and around the world, would I be interested in reading?

Well, at the end of Ted Chiang's story, he appends a little author's note where he thanks a scholar named Walter Ong and a book called Orality and Literacy. Orality here meaning a culture of spoken language. According to Ong, literacy is not just a skill. It's a means of restructuring our thoughts and our knowledge.

Well, at the end of Ted Chiang's story, he appends a little author's note where he thanks a scholar named Walter Ong and a book called Orality and Literacy. Orality here meaning a culture of spoken language. According to Ong, literacy is not just a skill. It's a means of restructuring our thoughts and our knowledge.

Well, at the end of Ted Chiang's story, he appends a little author's note where he thanks a scholar named Walter Ong and a book called Orality and Literacy. Orality here meaning a culture of spoken language. According to Ong, literacy is not just a skill. It's a means of restructuring our thoughts and our knowledge.

In oral cultures, Ong says, knowledge is preserved through repetition and mnemonic and stories. Orality requires the synchronous presence of multiple people in a place at the same time. And for that reason, oral cultures tend to be highly social.

In oral cultures, Ong says, knowledge is preserved through repetition and mnemonic and stories. Orality requires the synchronous presence of multiple people in a place at the same time. And for that reason, oral cultures tend to be highly social.

In oral cultures, Ong says, knowledge is preserved through repetition and mnemonic and stories. Orality requires the synchronous presence of multiple people in a place at the same time. And for that reason, oral cultures tend to be highly social.

Writing, by contrast, fixes words in place, which means one person can write their thoughts and another person decades later can read those precise thoughts with no error in the transliteration. This word fixing allows literate culture to develop abstract thinking. They are, after all, outsourcing the work of memory to a page, right?

Writing, by contrast, fixes words in place, which means one person can write their thoughts and another person decades later can read those precise thoughts with no error in the transliteration. This word fixing allows literate culture to develop abstract thinking. They are, after all, outsourcing the work of memory to a page, right?

Writing, by contrast, fixes words in place, which means one person can write their thoughts and another person decades later can read those precise thoughts with no error in the transliteration. This word fixing allows literate culture to develop abstract thinking. They are, after all, outsourcing the work of memory to a page, right?

When I write something on a note, it acts as an extension of my memory. And this allows for more complex and analytical thought. It's amazing and incredible to me that ancient storytellers could memorize the Iliad or the Odyssey, but you simply could not, say, invent calculus or quantum mechanics. without writing stuff down from time to time.