ICTs are indeed reducing many of our cherished cognitive facilities, much as our physical fitness has been reduced by all kinds of machinery for physical work and locomotion. How- ever, in my opinion, this is not too bad, as long as our reduced facilities are overcompensated by appropriate technology, and provided we make sure of two things: that we are not completely lost in case of large-scale breakdowns of technology, and that use of ICTs does not endanger our cre- ativity. Both provisos are starting to re- ceive attention: the first will hopefully be solved by introducing systems with sufficient redundancy; the second at- tracts varying opinions: some, like Carr, see mainly dangers, others like Thompson,7 see our future in a gro