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David McRaney, author of You Are Not So Smart and You Are Now Less Dumb and other books, gave us a number sequencing test. He started by giving us 2, 4, 6 and then 10, 12, 14. When we knew the rule we could lower our hands. We almost all lowered right away. and we were all wrong. He then talked about how we often tend to accept logical fallacies if they prove what we want to be right. Our memories are bad, our perceptions are flawed, and we really can not improve much. For this reason, we should ask questions,check facts, and get help. We need others. (At least, that is what I perceived as his message. I could be wrong.)
Clive Thompson, author of Smarter Than You Think, showed us a series of photos of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. Actually, it was the same photo except another member of Stalin's cabinet disappeared in each subsequent image. Stalin was alone in the final image. This was done by expert photo developers before Photoshop. Now almost anyone can do this with cheap or free software. With other low cost technology, we can publish our own ebooks, make our own video games, do our own science research, study word frequencies in classical literature, fact check our leaders, and start revolutions. The trend in technology is to inform and empower us.
There was not time to say how this all applied to libraries, but we can work it out.
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