Is the writing really on the wall? 2

Just how out of touch is Baroness Greenfield to suggest technology may make writing obsolete? Without captions, computer images are little better than animated cave drawings. Thought depends on language, and philosophy and civilisation depend on the permanence, stability, complexity and precision of written language. Oral traditions have changing mythology.

The advantage of writing is that it can be absorbed at the reader's pace matched to their ability. Try remembering a lecture without notes.

The fact students cut and paste from the web to essays merely indicates their willingness to forgo reading, let alone understanding, of concepts. Learning by experiment is less than chimpanzees manage.

Greenfield's book Tomorrow's People is equally wacky, suggesting that our toilets will give early diagnosis of disease by analysing our waste products and that mobile phones will be implanted in our heads. This in a world where millions of children become blind and starve to death through vitamin A deficiency, and mobile phones are largely fashion accessories.

Embedded phones would be great for live transmission of bullying and child pornography - they would leave hands free. Perhaps Greenfield's ideas have some effect on members of the Royal Society.

Hugh Fletcher
Belfast