In an article in last week’s New York Times, we find this:
The director of Google’s education apps group, Jonathan Rochelle, touched on that idea in a speech at an industry conference last year. Referring to his own children, he said: “I cannot answer for them what they are going to do with the quadratic equation. I don’t know why they are learning it.” He added, “And I don’t know why they can’t ask Google for the answer if the answer is right there.”
Regular readers know that I think this fundamentally misguided. Knowledge remains and will remain essential to negotiating the world. To see why let’s turn to another article in the Times: “If Americans Can Find North Korea on a Map, They’re More Likely to Prefer Diplomacy.”
Here’s the map of where the surveyed individuals placed North Korea.
According to the Times:
Geographic knowledge itself may contribute to an increased appreciation of the complexity of geopolitical events.
By the way the quadratic equation is not that hard to learn.
peakmemory 
Ask Johnathan what would happen if the Internet suddenly did not work. Never discount knowledge. It leads to thinking, which leads to progress.
That’s how I learned the multiplication table