This image was lost some time after publication.

Today in Twitter Journalism, it's our man at the Times, Damon Darlin. You've probably heard about, but haven't read, lovable IT crank Nick Carr's anti-Internet essay, "Is Google Making us Stupid?" Darlin helpfully pares Carr's 4,175-word article down to a single tweet. Then, contrary to what you'd expect from the Gray Lady's newsroom, he says there's a basic human fear over new communications technologies that goes all the way back to the original master of irony. We fed Darlin's essay into our shiny new 100-word-version machine:

Maybe you are thinking that Twitter, not Google, is the enemy of human intellectual progress. It is hard to think of a technology that wasn’t feared when it was introduced. Socrates feared the impact that writing would have on man’s ability to think. The advent of the printing press summoned similar fears. Professors feared that engineers would use the HP-35, the first hand-held scientific calculator, as a crutch. For all the new technologies that increase our productivity, there are others that demand more of our time. That is one of the dialectics of our era. With its maps and Internet access, the iPhone saves us time; with its downloadable games, we also carry a game machine in our pocket. But the engineer’s point of view puts trust in human improvement: writing, printing, computing and Googling have only made it easier to think and communicate.

Oh, and we tidied the author's bio: Damon Darlin is not on Twitter.