Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains."

I'm haunted by that scene in

2001

. What makes it so poignant, and

so weird, is the computer's emotional

response to the disassembly of its

mind: its despair as one circuit after

another goes dark, its childlike

pleading with the astronaut—"I can

feel it. I can feel it. I'm afraid"—and

its final reversion to what can only be

called a state of innocence. HAL's

outpouring of feeling contrasts with

the emotionlessness that characterizes

the human figures in the film, who go

about their business with an almost

robotic efficiency. Their thoughts and

actions feel scripted, as if they're

following the steps of an algorithm.

In the world of

2001

, people have

become so machinelike that the most

human character turns out to be a

machine. That's the essence of

Kubrick's dark prophecy: as we come

to rely on computers to mediate our

understanding of the world, it is our

own intelligence that flattens into

artificial intelligence.

1. What is the text about? Summarize the text.

2. What is the purpose of the text? Who is the intended audience? Explain.

3. What is the overall theme of the text?