RSS

Contact us

Tuesday 2 December 2008

The Wiki Man

Rory Sutherland's fortnightly column on technology and the web

A friend of mine, a professor at an Ivy League university, specialises in research into transgenic mice, learning how DNA modifications affect intelligence and memory. A few years ago, after some genetic tinkering, he created a batch of mice of quite spectacular dimwittedness. They were useless in the maze, ditzily wandering about with no sense of spatial awareness and incapable of finding the cheese after repeated attempts. This wasn’t the only interesting thing about these mice. Every one of them had a most unusual pigmentation, at least for mice: they were blond.

This was huge. ‘You’ve found the blond gene — phone the Sun!’ ‘Um, I was thinking more in terms of Nature or Scientific American,’ he said. He didn’t even follow my advice when I suggested cheese might be the wrong lure, since the blond mice were probably on a low-fat diet, and would probably only go for alcopops. By the time I’d recommended making a mouse-sized model of Chinawhite, he’d stopped listening altogether.

I’ve always loved the nature-versus-nurture debate, and not only because it makes left-wing people upset. Some suggest the stimulation of home electronics (nurture) explains an observable increase in IQ in recent years. Others argue (nature) that there is no environmental excuse for poor educational attainment now anyone can easily find out anything. Still more people (Daily Telegraph photo editors) believe you can only pass exams if you are female and ridiculously attractive.

But I was surprised by Susan Jacoby’s piece in last week’s Spectator. To blame growing ignorance on digital media seems odd. Why would a vast new realm of easily accessible information cause some people to know less? Well, Jacoby may be right.

More articles from: Rory Sutherland | this section

Print this article  |  Email to a friend  |  Permalink  |   Comment

Post this entry to:   del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Advertisement

Spectator Business | Apollo Magazine

Corporate | Advertising | Privacy | Terms

Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP

All Articles and Content Copyright ©2008 by The Spectator | All Rights Reserved