Not so long ago, the term "climate change" meant little to most people: now it is recognised by almost everyone as an umbrella term encompassing a wide variety of topics from carbon sequestration, to alternative energy, to water supplies. Some feel we're doomed, others that the problems are exaggerated, and still others that science can help. Far less acknowledged is an equally unprecedented phenomenon characterising the 21st century which, just like climate change, poses a diverse range of questions. "Mind change" is an appropriately neutral, umbrella concept encompassing the diverse issues of whether and how modern technologies may be changing the functional state of the human brain, both for good and bad.
Yet the mere mention of this possibility has provoked hostility, misrepresentation, and oversimplification of the case. When I suggested in a recent interview that possible connections between an obsessive cyber-life and a decline in empathy should be investigated, my comments drew a barrage of criticism. Most baffling, however, is a refusal to enter discussion. "She thinks that computers can rewire our brains without our permission", was one blogger's salvo, obviously unappreciative of how the brain, especially the human brain, interacts with the environment, while also implying a mind-brain dualism which has long been overtaken by neuroscience. More...
Don't miss:
Yet the mere mention of this possibility has provoked hostility, misrepresentation, and oversimplification of the case. When I suggested in a recent interview that possible connections between an obsessive cyber-life and a decline in empathy should be investigated, my comments drew a barrage of criticism. Most baffling, however, is a refusal to enter discussion. "She thinks that computers can rewire our brains without our permission", was one blogger's salvo, obviously unappreciative of how the brain, especially the human brain, interacts with the environment, while also implying a mind-brain dualism which has long been overtaken by neuroscience. More...
Don't miss:
- Is the Internet ruining our minds?
- We humans are becoming irrelevant as machines take over...
- Who are We? (Must see absolutely)
- Is the internet bad for the memory?
- Humans will be able to back up their brain within two decades...
- Super computer "Watson" takes on human quiz champions...
- The plot device...
- Meet Electricity Mohan, India's human conductor!!! Amazing...
- Internet-addicted parents raise virtual daughter as real baby starves to death...
No comments:
Post a Comment