Future Minds: How the Digital Age Is Changing Our Minds, Why This Matters, and What We Can Do About It

by Richard Watson

Why, in an age of too much information and too little time, should you read this book?

We are on the cusp of a revolution. Mobile phones, computers and iPods are commonplace in hundreds of millions of households worldwide, influencing how we think and shaping how we interact.

In the future, smart machines will compete with clever people for employment and even human affection. We are shifting to a world where knowledge will be automated and people will be rewarded instead as conceptual and creative thinkers. Hence being able to think and act in ways that machines cannot will become vital. Ideas are the currency of this new economy and curiosity and imagination are among the key raw materials. But what happens to the rigour of our thinking in a world where we never really sit still or completely switch off? What are some of the unexpected consequences of digital information on the 100 billion cells and quadrillion connections inside our brains?

Future Minds illustrates how to maximise the potential of digital technology and minimise its greatest downside, addressing the future of thinking and how we can ensure that we unleash the extraordinary potential of the human mind. In this absorbing new book, discover all the sex life of ideas; the rise of the screenager; generations, gender and geography; delving deep inside your head; how to clear a blocked brain; why clever people make dumb mistakes; why we are so afraid of doing nothing; what we can do to reclaim our brains.

Genres: Nonfiction, Psychology, Science, Business, Technology

228 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Richard Watson (born 1961) is an English author, lecturer and futurist known for his 2007 book Future Files: a Brief History of The Next 50 Years and for his infographics, especially his Trends & Technology Timeline 2010-2050 and the Timeline of Emerging Science and Technology 2015-2030.

He has written 5 books about the future and is the founder of What’s Next, a website that documents global trends. He has been a blogger on innovation for Fast Company Magazine and has written about creativity, innovation, and future thinking for a variety of publications including Future Orientation (Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies) and What Matters (McKinsey & Company). He is a proponent of scenario planning and an advocate of preferred futures, believing it is incumbent upon organisations to create compelling visions of the future and work towards their realisation.

In addition to writing, Watson works with the Technology Foresight Practice at Imperial College London and Lectures at London Business School and the King's Fund. He is also a network member of Stratforma and has worked with the Strategic Trends Unit at the UK Ministry of Defence, the RAND Corporation, CSIRO, the Cabinet Office and the Departments of Education in the UK and Australia.

Reviews

[حسين عبدعلي · Rating 4 out of 5]

عقول المستقبل
كيف يغير العصر الرقمي عقولنا،
ولماذا نكترث، وما الذي في وسعنا فعله

ريتشارد واطسون

مرة أخرى وأخرى؛ أقف أمام منجزٍ يعرّي أمامنا التكنولوجيا والتطور الرقمي بوصفهما حصان طراودة الذي تركه السوق أمام عقولنا فتسرّب جيشه نحو آلية تفكيرنا. البداية -بالنسبة لي- كانت عبر مصافحة كتاب سوزان غرينفليد المعنون بـ "تغير العقل" والمهتمة بعلم الأعصاب وتأثير التقنية على الدماغ. وبالمناسبة هي أيضًا كاتبة ومذيعة بريطانية وعضوة في مجلس اللوردات. ثمّ أخذني الفيلم الوثائقي The Social Dilemma إلى رحلة في دهاليز شبكات التواصل الاجتماعي. ومؤخرًا كان الفيلم الوثائقي The Great Hack فرصة للتعرف على إحدى أهم شركات جمع واستخراج البيانات وتحليلها. والآن، أقف أمام منجز ريتشارد واطسون (عقول المستقبل، كيف يغير العصر الرقمي عقولنا، ولماذا نكترث، وما الذي في وسعنا فعله)!

يصف واطسون وراء كل من سوزان غرينفليد ومايكل ميرزنيتش في اتفاقهم على مقدرة الانترنت في تحقيق تغيير أساسي في عقولنا، تغيير يصل إلى حد إعادة تشكيل المخ على نطاق واسع.

ما هو أول فعل تقوم به لحظة استيقاظك من النوم؟ ماذا كنت تفعل قبل أن تنام؟ لاحظ الناس وهم يندفعون لتشغيل موبايلاتهم فورًا وبمجرد أن تهبط طائرتهم كما لو أن هناك معلومات مهمة بداخله قد تهدد الحياة ولا يمكن أن تحتمل الانتظار لمدة خمس أو عشر دقائق حتى يصلوا إلى داخل محطة الوصول بالمطار. أعرف ذلك لأني (حسين) أفعل ذلك، ولأن ريتشارد واطسون يفعل الشيء ذاته.

فكرتي التي ذكرتها سابقًا وأعيدها مجددًا، بالنسبة لكل هذا يمكن اختصارها كالتالي: أجهزة الحاسب، الانترنت، السوشيال ميديا، قوقل، وغيرها أدوات من المفترض أن تساعدنا على التفكير وليس منعنا من التفكير. وأن أضعف الإيمان في ظل الشعور بالعجز في الوقوف ضد هذا الغول، هو أن نكون ملمين -ولو قليلًا- ومدركين -ولو الشيء البسيط- حول آلية اشتغال هذه الأدوات ومنظومتها.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting argument for a "slow thinking" movement. Some good points about the need to allow ideas to form and the benefits of boredom. Overall nothing strikingly new but it is worth reminding ourselves to leaves the screens behind and take a walk by the sea occasionally.

[Silent Polyglot · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best nonfiction books I've ever read! 💖 Highly recommend! 👍

[سالم عبدالله · Rating 5 out of 5]

كتاب رائع

[Ben Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting analysis of digital culture, essentially arguing that we are bombarding ourselves with input at the expense of taking time to sit back and think. It's a slanted view of digital culture, yes, but quite persuasive. Food for thought.

[Durrah]

يتحدث الكتاب عن دراسة لإديولوجيات حديثة فرضتها التقنية على حياة الإنسان البشري، وأوضح بشكل متباين مدى قوة الدور الأساسي الذي تسيطره التقنية -بشكل عام- وقوتها على المصائر ككل بشكل مثير، وأثرى حصيلتي باستقراءات ودراسات مثيرة لعلماء حول دينمايكية العقل.
انصح به

[David Hakaraia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The themes of the book are equally relevant ten or more years after it was written. I find it interesting to see and reflect on how my nephews (now becoming screenagers) see their world with screens ( in hand almost constantly) as well as without and the impact on their ability to think deeply, especially in this year where they have spent more time learning at home than at school, definitely missing the usual daily social interactive thinking time.
The book has been a great catalyst to reflect on how people in their different decades are being influenced by the digital life, and their acceptance or denial the opinion pieces they read that is sometimes presented as information. Are they noticing whether they can find a time and place to think deeply.

[Justin Emery · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was not the first book I had read to make the case that technology changes the way our minds work. The Shallows by Nicholas Carr, made that case excellently when published in 2010. However it was not until last year, when wandering through a charity shop, that I discovered Future Minds, published in the same year and covering similar territory. What caught my interest was the promise of practical suggestions to combat the less desirable changes to our minds in the digital age.

On this measure it is only partly successful; it is far from a definitive plan to cope in the digital age. Only one chapter is given to practical suggestions, and even then they are rather vague. For example, some of the author’s top 10 tips for deep thinking include “be patient”, “lose your inhibitions”, and “retain an open mind”. This is all good advice, but it feels like pointers in the right direction rather than a concrete solution. There’s plenty of food for thought, but no menu.

What I would have preferred to see is a list of exercises one can practice. One of the few suggestions of this kind is to try doing nothing for 24 hours. I must admit I have not found the time for this yet, and it’s probably not a feasible exercise for many people, but I have been experimenting with shorter periods of nothingness and found the results to be fantastic: just 5 minutes of truly doing nothing can help me leave behind my bad habits of reacting to every distraction, and renew my focus for hours to come.

Read the full review on mindful.technology

[Trung Dang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for thinking about current digital age affect to our mind.
I think anyone in this digital age will need to read it.

[Christie Skipper Ritchotte]

An enjoyable, insightful book that I never finished. Sometimes that happens with me and non-fic; I stop and set aside the book when something really clobbers me so I can ruminate and classy stuff like that. I'll either have to recheck it out from the library or buy it, I s'pose.

I like that the author is not a dooms-dayer; I'm sick of all these negative books--it's like everything's going to kill you, or kill your kids, or kill your country. Richard Watson approaches this material in an intelligent yet lighthearted way. He has a reasonable style that is fun and easy to engage with. He's sure not saying everyone should go home and burn their computers and cell phones to evict the techno demons, but calmly tells us why it's important to clear out some space for our minds so they can work better for us, and then has suggestions on how to actually declutter a bit. Refreshing!

My favorite part was when he goes into how, why, and when our brains do their best creative work and problem solving. He includes convincing studies to back this up (real science, yay!), and also conducted a survey asking smart and creative people what activities they are typically engaged in when they get their best insights. Some of the most common answers included showering, taking a walk, reading a book, just before falling asleep or just before waking up, among others. Hey, I do all those things. It's probably not coincidental that these are the times when we're not actively engaged in anything heavy, but kind of daydreaming. Turns out our teachers were WRONG (so kiss it, every elementary teacher I ever had), and you should let kids (and adults) daydream; it's good for us, and good for our brains.

It's a no-brainer that we need to disengage some from our devices in small ways, like driving in silence at times or taking a walk sans phone. Just making time to do something dreamy, like doodling or doing a puzzle is good for you. Turns out that sometimes the best way to figure out a troublesome problem is to stop thinking so hard about it and let that beautiful subconscious do what it does best.

The thing that got me putting the book down to think was the research that seems to say the way we learn and the patterns of our thought processes are actually changing due to our
rapidfire technology and connectedness. The place in the brain where deep memories are made and kept, and where deep creativity and problem-solving occur aren't as active when we over-connect, although our ability to think rapidly on our feet improves. Interesting food for thought.

[Osman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book tells sets forth in not a few words that looking at screens all day long is bad for us because it fosters an impatient, shallow outlook and that the remedy is to limit our exposure to the internet and other devices and grab some quality time by ourselves and in face to face communication with friends and family. That’s it really.

Despite the fact that Watson claims to be a futurologist there is nothing in here that you haven’t heard a thousand times before. Singularity, The unfeasibility of AI, the encroachment of quiet by noise and modern life; why sleep is recommended; why it’s makes sense to take risks and fail; why you might have good ideas in the shower or when you switch everything off and enjoy some ‘downtime’.

I’m not really sure what the purpose of this book was- I didn’t really get anything worthwhile out of it. Much of it is anecdote of course and stories which take you away from whatever point he is trying to make. At least he constructs readable sentences, which is more than the last author I read could seem to do.

‘Be patient’ is one of the Watsons injunctions- sorry there’s only so much time you can waste on stuff like this

[Jari Pirhonen]

The book is about how new communications tools and information explosion - spending huge amount time in front of the screen - changes our thinking and ability to compose new ideas. Change is not all good. We'll develop a screenage brain, when we may loose some important capabilities. The author emphasizes the importance of book reading, daydreaming and face-to-face communication. Those all are required to keep new ideas flowing. Good reading to understand the problems with paperless living, too efficient workplaces and focusing too much on efficiency instead of effectiveness.

[Andrei Stinga · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is stunning. Its aim is to demonstrate how the new digital age is slowly but surely modifying the way we think, perceive and relate to the world around us. Could Google, Facebook, Twitter and the like really change how our brains work and process information? Now that's an interesting question...
The author actually promotes boredom and... doing nothing(:))) as means to break free from the digital bondage that we've gotten ourselves into.

[PeterBlackCoach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting and easy to read book on what the digital age is doing to our minds, our ability to focus and concentrate and on our relationships. We need to find ways to "turn off" to enable us to do other productive activities that require more creativity and thinking time. Read in conjunction with previous book on my book list "Hamlets Blackberry".

PB

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chapter 4 onwards,

Although this was published in 2011, it speaks a lot to how our thinking is slowed down and stuck at superficial level. It is due to the pace of life dominated by technology, our minds being driven to process information like a computer rather than slowing down, making space to let thoughts to sink in, incubate and mature.

[Biogeek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth a read as we think of how the "screenager" thinks and learns. Some interesting studies cited as well ...what, real data??!!!

[auria · Rating 4 out of 5]

15,19

[Hafizuddin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe something good points can be take.

[Rojiniño · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thought-provoking. Insightful insights on the need to have a balance of technology and activities we did in the past.

[Digit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Technology changes how people concentrate, disrupting deep thoughts and focus. Technology-driven change demands profound consideration in order for people to
grasp its full meaning.

[Ric Semilla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought-provoking, interesting read.

[Kevin]

Summary at http://greatesthitsblog.com/category/...