Shortened attention span. Less interest in reflection and
introspection. Inability to engage in in-depth thought.
Fragmented, distracted thinking. The ways the Internet
supposedly affects thought are as apocalyptic as they are
speculative, since all the above are supported by anecdote, not
empirical data. So it is refreshing to hear how 109
philosophers, neurobiologists, and other scholars answered, "How
is the Internet changing the way you think?" That is the "annual
question" at the online salon edge.org, where every year science
impresario, author, and literary agent John Brockman poses a
puzzler for his flock of scientists and other thinkers. Although
a number of contributors drivel on about, say, how much time
they waste on e-mail, the most striking thing about the 50-plus
answers is that scholars who study the mind and the brain, and
who therefore seem best equipped to figure out how the Internet
alters thought, shoot down the very idea. "The Internet hasn't
changed the way we think," argues neuroscient