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All Can Be Lost: The Risk of Putting Our Knowledge in the Hands of Machines

Oct 2013 🇺🇸 The Atlantic

Also known by its original print title 'The Great Forgetting,' this November 2013 Atlantic essay extends Carr's attention-focused argument to automation more broadly. He describes cases, chiefly in aviation, where pilots increasingly monitor autopilot systems rather than fly manually, and where heavy reliance on automated systems is associated with atrophy of the underlying human skill, so that when the automation fails, the operator may be less prepared to intervene than before the technology existed. Carr extends the concern to everyday computing, arguing that offloading memory, navigation, and problem-solving to devices carries a similar tradeoff between convenience and skill retention. The essay synthesizes existing research and case reports rather than presenting new data of its own. TechKids Foundation includes it as the direct precursor to Carr's book The Glass Cage and a widely read statement of the automation-and-skill-erosion concern.

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CITATION

Carr, Nicholas. "All Can Be Lost: The Risk of Putting Our Knowledge in the Hands of Machines." The Atlantic, November 2013 print issue (published online Oct. 23, 2013, as "The Great Forgetting"). https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/11/the-great-forgetting/309516/

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