Adding things up

I remember when pocket calculators first came out. It was such a novel way to find the answer to math problems. I didn't trust them however. I always did the math by hand to make sure the calculator was correct. Today of course I rely on calculators and rarely, when I have done some math by hand I find I will check my answers on a calculator.
I am just about finished with a book by Denis Edwards titled Ecology at the Heart of Faith. Edwards writes of the emergence of life, of the evolution that occurs in the process of living and dying, and the movement from simplicity toward complexity. At one point he refers to Teilhard de Chardin's work with its expectation that future evolutionary increases in complexity will be in the mind having already become complex in the spheres of matter and life.
I am sure that many would see in the technological advances of human society reflections of the growing complexity of the mind. Life in post modern reality is certainly filled with ingenious inventions and complex techno forms of social interactions but there does seem to be some downsides to the advances that have been made. Most children no longer learn to do calculations without the assistance of a calculator of some kind. Most adults have no need to use some of the rote math skills they once learned though I am sure that more than a few people are relieved that they can now carry a calculator in their pocket or purse to make up for what they didn't learn very well.
Memorizing poems or scripture or stories is really a lost art because of course memorizing is not necessary. A favorite verse can be quickly found online and with a smart phone is immediately accessible. The same is true for data of any kind. Need to know who won a world series or what year the Challenger exploded? Just type it in. There was a time when my husband used to be the source of knowledge for a circle of friends because he is a book lover and knows how to look things up. The change from being a wise man to extraneous among a younger generation came quickly, in a matter of a year or two,  as the cost of smart phones dropped into the reach of the working class. All of this might be good for information sharing but I don't think that it reflects any increasing complexity of the mind. Data from a computer is generally data without context and is not as likely to be remembered once it is found for its immediate use.
Without memorizing, great blocks of mind are not used. No one needs to remember a phone number or even an address. Stories can be read over and over exactly as they are written but the art of weaving the present moment into a tale from the past comes from the work of memorizing and translating what is known into the story.
I read once that the children of technology giants are sent to schools where they cannot use the technology their parents have contributed to inventing. It seems these people are aware that unless the child uses the mind they have been given, they will not grow up with the intellectual prowess needed to make the advances their parents did. I found that article pretty telling.
My husband uses an abacus weekly as he balances his checkbook. I appreciate that he has the patience and will to do so. I know it keeps his mind sharp. I have never learned to use one. For me it is a relic of a time centuries before the slide rule - another tool I never really mastered. I used to be pretty good at calculating with pencil and paper, and I can still do it if needed but I've grown lazy over time.
When I look around I think that we humans are in a dumbing down phase rather than increasing in complexity. Perhaps the trouble is that we are impatient. We would like to achieve the super mind envisioned in science fiction but we want it now so we imitate the achievement by using smart phones and computers and such and in so doing, we interrupt the evolutionary process of the mind.
Might be time to let the contract on my smart phone lapse.