Thank you, Steve Alessi, for reminding us that we, as instructional technologists and educational researchers, do have important things to tend to, and, either in spite of or on account of our many and healthy differences, we should try to help build a better future. I especially liked your remarks about the significance of diversity. Your essay reminded me of T.S. Elliot, who said that "the good man is the builder, if he builds what is good." And I seem to recall something about "the wisdom we have lost in knowledge" and the "knowledge we have lost in information" (Choruses From the Rock).
So, you have set me to wondering about the "goodness" of some of the things that happen as a result of instructional technology. I wonder, for example, what the long term effects will be on a person's linguistic abilities should that person happen to acquire important language skills via a keyboard as opposed to a writing tablet (at ages five to seven, for example) or via a digital assistant with voice recognition and speech generation, as suggested in your scenario. The latter places the linguistic processing capabilities in the aural domain, whereas the former retains the written aspects but shifts their acquisition from a one-handed process to a two-handed process, which should have implications for the localization and perhaps processing of linguistic capabilities in the brain. Are these the kinds of questions that you are suggesting are important areas of research?
And, if so, I am curious to learn what you think about Julius Jaynes' Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.