Outsourcing the mental? From knowledge-on-demand to Morbus Google

SummaryBased on John von Neumann's descriptions of the fundamental architecture of computers and brains more than half a century ago, we have learnt a lot more about their functioning. In contrast to computers, which contain different modules for the processing and storage of information, in brains the processing and storage of information are carried out by the same structures, i.e., neurons. As a consequence, brain function gets better with more storage, i.e., the more knowledge a person has. Brains do not download information but construct knowledge, which is used to access information. There is no such thing as knowledge on demand. Without knowledge, information cannot be accessed, which is illustrated by the phenomenon of Morbus Google in the medical domain.