Brain Gain: Technology and the Quest for Digital Wisdom

by Marc Prensky

"In an age where the answer to every question is at your fingertips, where does the human brain fit in?"In one hand-held object, we are able to manage all of our calendars, documents, and interpersonal relationships with such ease that many people are lost when forced to do perform these tasks without the aid of electronics. Often heard are the calls for less technology and more face-to-face interaction, for fear that the use of all this artificial intelligence is dampening our own ability to think.Author Marc Prensky has a different idea. In this controversial and well-argued treatise, Prensky offers the idea that rather than stunting the mind—that most essential aspect of an individual's intelligence and sense of self—smart technology (and smart use of technology) enhances our humanity in ways that the brain on its own never could. Through scores of fascinating examples, Prensky shows that the symbiotic combination of the human brain and technology—from marrying the brain's strengths such as sense-making and complex reasoning abilities with technology's strengths like storing and processing large amounts of data—has great benefits for our own cognitive functioning. How should we best combine the strengths of mind and machine for maximum benefit? Prensky's call is for digital wisdom—a new interconnectedness between human and technology that is already enabling Homo Sapiens to begin the journey into the next stages of cognitive evolution.

Genres: Nonfiction, Technology, Education, Brain

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 7, 2012

Reviews

[Leland Beaumont · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rejecting the popular opinion that rapidly increasing reliance on technology makes us dumber and less human, Marc Prensky argues persuasively that we can—and do—use technology to make us wiser. While the human mind is unsurpassed in creativity, learning from experience, understanding context, appreciating humor, and telling stories our minds are limited in several ways, including capacity, objectivity, focus, and accuracy. The good news is that the strengths and weaknesses of the human mind are often complementary to the strengths and weaknesses of technologies.

After defining wisdom as: the ability to find practical, creative, contextually appropriate, and emotionally satisfying solutions to complicated human problems, he goes on to ask “Are we wiser if…” for each of 50 areas in which technology is used to supplement our thinking, now and in the near future. For each area he cites current examples and explores the questions: “Is this use of technology wise?” and “Are there wiser uses of this technology?” He then balances this optimistic outlook with a candid survey of less beneficial uses of technology—cataloging those that are merely clever, undoubtedly stupid, and even dangerous.

Just as fire is a technology that can be used to provide great benefit or do great harm, much of the value of digital technology depends on how we choose to use it. Chapter five gives helpful advice for using today’s technology to cultivate brain gain and digital wisdom. Chapter six encourages us to teach our kids wise ways to employ technologies. He recommends focusing on the enduring “verbs” of education, rather than the transient “nouns” because we always need to: understand, communicate, analyze, persuade, and decide what we believe, although the tools we use to complete these tasks change as our technologies change. Math education should emphasize problem formulation and leave the calculations to the machines. The final chapter looks further into the future with a brief overview of Ray Kurzweil’s concept of the Singularity—the moment in history when the power of technology exceeds the power of the human brain.

Portions of the book that help us to recognize wise and unwise uses of technology may be enduring; however the many specific examples used in the book will soon be obsolete. Perhaps the book can be kept up to date by publishing updated versions, or maintaining an effective companion website.

[Annette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brain Gain: Technology and the Quest for Digital Wisdom by Marc Prensky is a natural extension of his other books related to technology. Having read his other works, I was looking forward to his latest venture. I wasn't disappointed.[return][return]The book kicks off with a discussion of the tie that's formed between humans and technology. Prensky describes this connection as the "symbiotic integration of technology with our minds." He emphasizes how the best of technology and the human mind can be combined to produce digital wisdom. This new type of human he names "homo sapiens digital." [return][return]I was particularly interested in his chapter focusing on teaching digital wisdom. He did a nice job synthesizing current thinking in the area. Although the book didn't provide any earth-shattering insights, it did an excellent job bringing together current thinking in this area and providing lots of examples.[return][return]I left the reading experience thinking about the relationship between technology and the human mind. Like any relationship there are positives and negatives. The key will be to see how we nurture the positives to produce this "brain gain."[return][return]I recommend this book for anyone interested in the relationship between technology and humans.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Prensky shares how technology will “change our minds” to learn new things and produce new thoughts. With our gadgets and technological capabilities, we are able to extend our minds, heighten our cognitive surplus, increase our thinking powers and improve our thought process and concentration. As Albert Einstein stated “a new type of thinking is essential if mankind [and womankind] is to survive and move to higher levels” (Prensky, 2012, p. 35). It might be time to outsource some of our brains limitations, including memory, storage, accuracy, complexity and prediction, to a technological source. Prensky believes that by using technology we have an advantage to be “better thinkers who make wiser decisions and choices” (2012, p. 52). Much of our decision-making can come from the symbiosis of the mind and technology.

See more about my book review posted on my blog: https://techknowtools.wordpress.com/2...

[Nadine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prensky has some good things to say, but frankly to make a book out of it is stretching a point - a long long point. Each chapter I thought after the first few pages, OK, got it, valid point, but then he went on and on and on with additional examples which left me pretty bored by the end. I guess that's what the internet is for, for stuff like this, which shouldn't really get printed on real paper that involves real trees dying.

[Chris Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prensky has some good things to say, especially those who tend to demonize digital technology. He does a good job promoting the positives and realities. One thing that was a little confusing was his view on how to keep a reign on technology. Seemed like he dismissed those who have some hesitancy about digital technology, but at the same time wrote that we need to be careful because of what the future might hold. Seemed a tad contradictory.