Just the Facts, Ma'am

One of the effects of living with electric information is that we live habitually in a state of information overload. There's always more than you can cope with. ~ Marshall McLuhan

The question is this: What should we know in our own heads and what should we simply leave to a machine's storage device?

Joe Makley has a fascinating post on this very subject titled, "Platitudes and Orthodoxy in Web 2.0." But Joe goes beyond whether a fact is completely necessary to learn. He speaks to the issue of focus and contemplation in this world where we are bombarded by so much information that we often operate on an instant-to-instant crisis basis rather than through deliberation and thoughtfulness.

Are we in danger of losing both our roots and our wings? Our souls? Any thoughts about taming the technology beast?

Taming the Beast - Choice & Control in the Electronic Jungle by Jason Ohler.
The Idea of Global Collective Memory
Artificial Intelligence at LIM Resources Wiki