Interesting way of looking at the current information and knowledge situation at present. I have always leant towards the notion that we are, on average and in some ways, not all, getting dumber because we are relying more and more on technology to do the thinking for us. Throughout history past generations could work many things out in their head or using technology of the day, paper, that today's generations would struggle with, yet with the aid of modern technology today's generations can work out much more and much faster than generations passed. So I don't think it is all black and white, it's all relative. Today we have great abilities with the aid of technology, for example, I would look like an uneducated buffoon were it not for spell-check to fix all the errors when writing this comment (apart from 'leant'...). But at the same time it is our Achilles heel, what would happen if our access to technology was cut off? How long would it take us to relearn what took our forefathers centuries to master? How smart would we be without Google? Of course I think we would adapt but we seem to adapt faster to methods that make our lives easier, rather than reverting to a more difficult way.