"There is evidence, he says, that digital technology is already damaging the long-term memory consolidation that is the basis for true intelligence ... this is a radical upending of the 'literate mind' that has been the hallmark of civilisation for more than 1,000 years."

I don't know if the author addresses this in his book, but it is widely observed that pre-literate societies have much greater focus and training on memorization and long-term memory as a group than their literate counterparts. It is likely that technology does change they way we decide to remember things (compare the amount of phone numbers you had memorized in your pre-cellphone years to how many you memorize now) but I think as a species we are far too concerned with trivia and details to really not be able to make connections. I think there will always be people with an energy and enthusiasm for learning and that isn't going to be destroyed by using google more often.

Or maybe the author is correct and the internet is just paving the way for us evolving into Eloi. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eloi