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Brain Power: From Neurons to Networks
While many wonder what the pervasive use of technology is doing to our overloaded mental circuits, 'Brain Power: From Neurons to Networks' ponders that question in another way: can cutting-edge neurological research teach us anything about how we shape the electronic global “brain” of the Internet? Can we share lessons between neurons and networks in the way we nurture and develop both? This ebook was created in conjunction with a 10-minute film by author Tiffany Shlain, also titled 'Brain Power,' which uses an innovative, participatory filmmaking process called Cloud Filmmaking. The TED Book expands on the ideas in the film by sharing deeper research, videos, graphics, and links that explore the increasingly intertwined worlds of advanced neuroscience research and technology. This release marks the first time a film and TED Book have been released together.
- GenresScienceNonfiction
51 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 7, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 6, 2017
Updating McLuhan: How the Internet and the human brain can reinforce each other
Taking up where Marshall McLuhan left off and bringing his thinking into the 21st Century, Tiffany Shlain explores an extended metaphor in this tiny e-book published as an Amazon Single. She characterizes the Internet as “an extension of our brains — an extension of us,” just as McLuhan saw the book as an extension of the eye and electric circuity as an extension of the central nervous system. In fact, Shlain’s metaphor stands up to greater scrutiny than McLuhan’s. She makes a powerful case.
The similarities between the human brain and the Internet have been pointed out before, of course. However, Shlain delves deeply into contemporary neurological science, recent studies in childhood development, and the emergent properties of the Internet. She delivers up a convincing argument that we humans can vastly expand the scope of our understanding and insight by broadening the reach of digital media and engaging an ever-greater portion of humanity in taking advantage of the World Wide Web as a mechanism to share our ideas. Today, only about one-third of humanity — about 2.4 billion people — have access to the Internet. Shlain posits a near future when everyone who wishes may get online and share any thought with anyone else on the planet. By making judicious choices of what we share and what we read or experience online, we can literally reshape our brains.
This surprising claim is borne out by science, as Shlain reports. The human brain at birth is effectively a blank slate, composed of about 100 billion neurons, “the same number an adult brain has — but most of the connections between all those neurons aren’t there yet.” And it’s the connections that determine how we sense the world around us and how behave in response. The first 2,000 days of life — about five years — are critical, because during that time a child’s experiences determine which connections are made, which are strengthened, and which are left by the wayside. However, the process of reshaping the brain doesn’t end at age 5. Throughout our lives, the connections among the neurons in our brains continue to grow, shrink, and shift, the result of all we learn and experience and do as the years go by.
Already, digital “[t]echnology is rewiring the human brain” just as earlier technologies such as the book profoundly changed the ways we think and behave. For example, according to a California neuroscientist whose work Shlain cites, “social networking produces a burst of oxytocin, the hormone responsible for bonding, empathy, trust, and generosity.”
Hence, Shlain writes, “If we’re at the metaphoric first 2,000 days of life for the Internet, then right now is when we need to pay close and careful attention to developing its brain.” With a trillion webpages now online, about 10 times the number of neurons in the human brain, the capacity for new insight by increasing the connections among them is already vast. “Both a young brain and our young, global Internet brain are in highly creative, experimental, innovative states of rapid development — just waiting to make connections.”
Our job is to ensure that the right choices are made to nurture empathy, creativity, and sharing behavior in both. In raising children, this means minimizing the activation of stress hormones in the early years, since “prolonged activation . . . can actually reduce neural connections in important areas of the brain — such as those dedicated to learning and reasoning — while increasing neural connections in the parts of the brain dedicated to fear and aggression.” In managing digital media, we need to ensure that the Internet remains open, so that limitless connections are possible. This means rejecting attempts by corporations and rebelling against those by governments to establish control over the Internet.
Tiffany Shlain has written a thought-provoking little book, entirely worthy of the TED label that promises “ideas worth spreading.” A winner of numerous awards, Shlain is an innovative Bay Area filmmaker who founded the Webby Awards a decade and a half ago and is now pioneering in “crowd-filmmaking.”
Taking up where Marshall McLuhan left off and bringing his thinking into the 21st Century, Tiffany Shlain explores an extended metaphor in this tiny e-book published as an Amazon Single. She characterizes the Internet as “an extension of our brains — an extension of us,” just as McLuhan saw the book as an extension of the eye and electric circuity as an extension of the central nervous system. In fact, Shlain’s metaphor stands up to greater scrutiny than McLuhan’s. She makes a powerful case.
The similarities between the human brain and the Internet have been pointed out before, of course. However, Shlain delves deeply into contemporary neurological science, recent studies in childhood development, and the emergent properties of the Internet. She delivers up a convincing argument that we humans can vastly expand the scope of our understanding and insight by broadening the reach of digital media and engaging an ever-greater portion of humanity in taking advantage of the World Wide Web as a mechanism to share our ideas. Today, only about one-third of humanity — about 2.4 billion people — have access to the Internet. Shlain posits a near future when everyone who wishes may get online and share any thought with anyone else on the planet. By making judicious choices of what we share and what we read or experience online, we can literally reshape our brains.
This surprising claim is borne out by science, as Shlain reports. The human brain at birth is effectively a blank slate, composed of about 100 billion neurons, “the same number an adult brain has — but most of the connections between all those neurons aren’t there yet.” And it’s the connections that determine how we sense the world around us and how behave in response. The first 2,000 days of life — about five years — are critical, because during that time a child’s experiences determine which connections are made, which are strengthened, and which are left by the wayside. However, the process of reshaping the brain doesn’t end at age 5. Throughout our lives, the connections among the neurons in our brains continue to grow, shrink, and shift, the result of all we learn and experience and do as the years go by.
Already, digital “[t]echnology is rewiring the human brain” just as earlier technologies such as the book profoundly changed the ways we think and behave. For example, according to a California neuroscientist whose work Shlain cites, “social networking produces a burst of oxytocin, the hormone responsible for bonding, empathy, trust, and generosity.”
Hence, Shlain writes, “If we’re at the metaphoric first 2,000 days of life for the Internet, then right now is when we need to pay close and careful attention to developing its brain.” With a trillion webpages now online, about 10 times the number of neurons in the human brain, the capacity for new insight by increasing the connections among them is already vast. “Both a young brain and our young, global Internet brain are in highly creative, experimental, innovative states of rapid development — just waiting to make connections.”
Our job is to ensure that the right choices are made to nurture empathy, creativity, and sharing behavior in both. In raising children, this means minimizing the activation of stress hormones in the early years, since “prolonged activation . . . can actually reduce neural connections in important areas of the brain — such as those dedicated to learning and reasoning — while increasing neural connections in the parts of the brain dedicated to fear and aggression.” In managing digital media, we need to ensure that the Internet remains open, so that limitless connections are possible. This means rejecting attempts by corporations and rebelling against those by governments to establish control over the Internet.
Tiffany Shlain has written a thought-provoking little book, entirely worthy of the TED label that promises “ideas worth spreading.” A winner of numerous awards, Shlain is an innovative Bay Area filmmaker who founded the Webby Awards a decade and a half ago and is now pioneering in “crowd-filmmaking.”
January 5, 2013
"Brain Power" accompanies Tiffany Shlain's film with the same title that can be downloaded from YouTube.
The book adds depth and detail to the content of the film. Whilst "Brain Power" can be read fairly quickly and, as Tiffany Shlain writes, should be read and experienced in one go like a Ted Talk, it covers a lot of scientific and intellectual ground. The book begins with the development of the brain of a young child and how is influenced by the use of the Internet. It then uses the development of the child's brain as an analogy for the developing internet that like the brain in early stages of its development generates an increasing amount of connections, some useful, some less useful, some harmful. Like the human brain it will need some "pruning" as it develops.
On a different level the book and in a different way the film continue a theme that leads through the films Shlain has produced over the past years, i.e. the question of who we are and who are we becoming in a world that is increasingly interconnected by the web and related technologies. Whilst there is plenty of popular literature out there that argues the Internet is shaping (in a positive or negative way) children's brains Shlain suggests that there is a reflexive relationship between technology and us who interact with, and through, it. The technology allows us to create ever more connections with other people, offering myriad opportunities but also challenges and maybe dangers.
Like a child's brain that grows through interacting with the world, the Internet develops in response to the ways in which we shape it in and through our interaction with it. One of Tiffany Shlain's messages therefore is to be mindful in how we interact with it, what we produce, share and consume because thus we also create what the Internet will be in the future. Tiffany Shlain's other message is that we should be mindful how we interact with the Web because that interaction is shaping who we are and who we become. In particular, she encourages people to take a break from the technology, to let your thoughts settle and give time to prune the emerging web, in your head and on the Internet. "Unplug" as the narrator calls out in Shlain and Ken Goldberg's film "Yelp! With an apology to Alan Ginsberg", and then think about how to use the resources offered by the Web for the better of the world and humanity.
Brain Power is one of a series of films Tiffany Shlain has produced using what she calls "cloud filmmaking". This stimulating and insightful book gives the series an intellectual foundation. I am looking forward to seeing how the series and Shlain's larger project will continue.
The book adds depth and detail to the content of the film. Whilst "Brain Power" can be read fairly quickly and, as Tiffany Shlain writes, should be read and experienced in one go like a Ted Talk, it covers a lot of scientific and intellectual ground. The book begins with the development of the brain of a young child and how is influenced by the use of the Internet. It then uses the development of the child's brain as an analogy for the developing internet that like the brain in early stages of its development generates an increasing amount of connections, some useful, some less useful, some harmful. Like the human brain it will need some "pruning" as it develops.
On a different level the book and in a different way the film continue a theme that leads through the films Shlain has produced over the past years, i.e. the question of who we are and who are we becoming in a world that is increasingly interconnected by the web and related technologies. Whilst there is plenty of popular literature out there that argues the Internet is shaping (in a positive or negative way) children's brains Shlain suggests that there is a reflexive relationship between technology and us who interact with, and through, it. The technology allows us to create ever more connections with other people, offering myriad opportunities but also challenges and maybe dangers.
Like a child's brain that grows through interacting with the world, the Internet develops in response to the ways in which we shape it in and through our interaction with it. One of Tiffany Shlain's messages therefore is to be mindful in how we interact with it, what we produce, share and consume because thus we also create what the Internet will be in the future. Tiffany Shlain's other message is that we should be mindful how we interact with the Web because that interaction is shaping who we are and who we become. In particular, she encourages people to take a break from the technology, to let your thoughts settle and give time to prune the emerging web, in your head and on the Internet. "Unplug" as the narrator calls out in Shlain and Ken Goldberg's film "Yelp! With an apology to Alan Ginsberg", and then think about how to use the resources offered by the Web for the better of the world and humanity.
Brain Power is one of a series of films Tiffany Shlain has produced using what she calls "cloud filmmaking". This stimulating and insightful book gives the series an intellectual foundation. I am looking forward to seeing how the series and Shlain's larger project will continue.
December 20, 2015
THE INTERNET AS A HUMAN BRAIN ANALOGY
Tiffany Shlain has constructed a compelling futuristic work using the metaphor of a child's mind development up to the age of five years, with that of the internet progression. Imbedded in her book are inspiring links to her film mosaic and her father's filmed dissertation on the historic difference between the function of the female and male brains processes. She most definitely offered valuable insights into where our human cognition is rushing for the mental advancement of our species.
Tiffany Shlain has constructed a compelling futuristic work using the metaphor of a child's mind development up to the age of five years, with that of the internet progression. Imbedded in her book are inspiring links to her film mosaic and her father's filmed dissertation on the historic difference between the function of the female and male brains processes. She most definitely offered valuable insights into where our human cognition is rushing for the mental advancement of our species.
November 17, 2012
AMAZING. VERY INFORMATIVE AND AMAZING.
TED, TED.com, TED Talks, TED Books—anything TED—is rapidly becoming my personal electronic ‘Chautauqua’ of first choice. It is a liberal arts academy for those of us who don’t know from ‘liberal,’ from ‘arts,’ from the ‘sciences,’ or from academia, either. What a nice use of the Internet.
"Attention is the mind’s most valuable resource."
"The Internet, is, in many ways, an extension of our brains — an extension of us. "
In her TED Book, ‘Brain Power: From Neurons to Networks, filmmaker/author Tiffany Schlain, among other premises, makes a rather compelling case for the ‘nurture’ side of the nature/nurture debate, especially as applied to the development of a child’s brain/mind. Some incredible things go on in the brain during our first 2000 days [5 years] of life.
The embedded videos in this TED Book are a must see. Until I’d watched a nineteen-HOUR old baby study and mimic the facial expressions of an adult, I don’t think I really knew what ‘wonder’ was. And, until I’d seen her dad’s, Dr. Leonard Schlain”s, talk about his book, ‘The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image’ I’d really had no idea about the roots of patriarchy in western society. Not to mention, “The Conflict Between Word and Image,” i.e. left-brain v. right-brain thinking.
[!!!ONE CAVEAT… there is one embedded video in this book: ‘Louis CK - Hilarious - Part 6 - Cell Phones And Flying;’ that, because of the profanity, might readily be considered inappropriate for minors. Very funny, but very vulgar.!!!]
All the above, and Ms. Schlain also manages to posit valid parallels between the development of the human brain and that of the Internet.
Such a copious bounty, all in a $3.00 TED Book. An incredible bargain.
Recommendation: Read this book… Watch the videos… Think about the points made…
Also recommend, if you skip the book… You might want to watch:
BRAIN POWER: From Neurons to Networks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLp-ed... [10:47]
The Alphabet vs. The Goddess Lecture by Dr. Leonard Shlain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QQuD6... [1:15:14]
“Nothing vast enters the lives of mortals without a curse."—Sophocles
TED, TED.com, TED Talks, TED Books—anything TED—is rapidly becoming my personal electronic ‘Chautauqua’ of first choice. It is a liberal arts academy for those of us who don’t know from ‘liberal,’ from ‘arts,’ from the ‘sciences,’ or from academia, either. What a nice use of the Internet.
"Attention is the mind’s most valuable resource."
"The Internet, is, in many ways, an extension of our brains — an extension of us. "
In her TED Book, ‘Brain Power: From Neurons to Networks, filmmaker/author Tiffany Schlain, among other premises, makes a rather compelling case for the ‘nurture’ side of the nature/nurture debate, especially as applied to the development of a child’s brain/mind. Some incredible things go on in the brain during our first 2000 days [5 years] of life.
The embedded videos in this TED Book are a must see. Until I’d watched a nineteen-HOUR old baby study and mimic the facial expressions of an adult, I don’t think I really knew what ‘wonder’ was. And, until I’d seen her dad’s, Dr. Leonard Schlain”s, talk about his book, ‘The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict Between Word and Image’ I’d really had no idea about the roots of patriarchy in western society. Not to mention, “The Conflict Between Word and Image,” i.e. left-brain v. right-brain thinking.
[!!!ONE CAVEAT… there is one embedded video in this book: ‘Louis CK - Hilarious - Part 6 - Cell Phones And Flying;’ that, because of the profanity, might readily be considered inappropriate for minors. Very funny, but very vulgar.!!!]
All the above, and Ms. Schlain also manages to posit valid parallels between the development of the human brain and that of the Internet.
Such a copious bounty, all in a $3.00 TED Book. An incredible bargain.
Recommendation: Read this book… Watch the videos… Think about the points made…
Also recommend, if you skip the book… You might want to watch:
BRAIN POWER: From Neurons to Networks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLp-ed... [10:47]
The Alphabet vs. The Goddess Lecture by Dr. Leonard Shlain http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QQuD6... [1:15:14]
“Nothing vast enters the lives of mortals without a curse."—Sophocles
December 29, 2012
I like the idea that the Internet at this moment is analogous to the developing child's brain, and that we should be mindful of how we shape connections in both the global and local brains. The message of Brain Power is a life-affirming one. And I finally found out what the word "Ubuntu" means!
I just wish this were either more book-like or actually experimental. It reads a bit like a TED talk. I was expecting more depth.
I just wish this were either more book-like or actually experimental. It reads a bit like a TED talk. I was expecting more depth.
May 30, 2016
A refreshing parallel between new research on nurturing the brain of a child and how we can develop the global brain of the internet( still in its formative years) .
Equally refreshing to listen to her interview by Krista Tippett's podcast "On being".... Or watch her movies
Equally refreshing to listen to her interview by Krista Tippett's podcast "On being".... Or watch her movies
April 2, 2013
Interesting but too generic
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews