GAVIN SCHROCK: With geospatial data and maps now being so ubiquitous and instantaneous, do you think this has raised our geographical intelligence or diminished it? KEN JENNINGS: It is funny that the received wisdom is just that "Americans are somehow worse at geography than they've ever been"; people have been writing these headlines since the 80s and in academic publications all through the 20th century. There are academics that are worried because their student did not know where the Appalachians are, people worrying that American school children aren't learning geography. But the fact is that the world is shrinking so much today; you turn on the TV and you're in Iraq, or Egypt, or Thailand, or wherever. People do have to know this stuff now, and I think they do--I think we are looking at maps more now than we have in decades.
展开▼
