Our brains are built for change. We are born with crude perception abilities, no cognitive activity and little control of our physical movements. Our brains evolve over a lifetime building a repertoire of skills and abilities unique to each of us.
In Michael Merzenich's talk he discusses the early exposure to sounds and the attempt by the developing brain to make sense of auditory input. By observing brain function with auditory input in a variety of species scientists have discovered the natural processor, our brain, goes to work making sense of sounds. In the first year of life the brain evolves quickly in response to its environment.
Even as an adult your brain is changing and morphing to adjust to skill building and new information. We all know that children go through profound changes but we often underestimate the changes we are experiencing. As we learn new skills our brain processors rise to the challenge and adapt to the new demands.
Technology offers constant change and challenge. In an interesting article from SEED MAGAZINE This is your Brain on Facebook
“Everything you do changes your brain,” says Daphne Bavelier, associate professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester. “When reading was invented, it also made huge changes to the kind of thinking we do and carried changes to the visual system.”
The study of adult brain plasticity, how the brain continues to dramatically change its wiring and function long after early development, has picked up speed in recent years as scientists realize that the brain is not static, but truly never stops reorganizing itself in response to the world. While in-depth examinations of what changes on a cellular and molecular scale remain very difficult in humans, indirect measures of brain changes, such as fMRI images, have strongly suggested that the adult brain is a highly malleable organ.
There is even evidence to indicate that video games may actually improve one's attention. But just like with everything, practice was the key ingredient to improvement. Practice leads to plasticity or in other words ... you can teach a dog new tricks.
Behind the catch phrases of social media and that never ending list of strange sounding websites there is a human need to connect. These technologies are enabling us to create a shared narrative. To create our identity out there on the internet with words and pictures. This identity is becoming just as valid and possibly more engaging than the "brick and mortar" existence of our everyday lives.
Constant connection through smartphones and other mobile technologies creates what Gleeson dubs, "the rise of the culture of availability" and with this an obligation for us to be available. How we choose to prioritize the demands of our "ever-connected" culture remains to be negotiated as our attention is pulled in various directions at any given time.
The opportunity to create and share is there. Create and share great things. And please do not text and drive.
What's Next? The Current Financial Crisis, The Ultimate Reboot & Homo Evolutis.
The Current Financial Crisis? Stop Evolving, Stop Growing. The Ultimate reboot is at hand.
I would argue that we are already living in the time of the ultimate reboot and Homo Evolutus. You can see those people all around you. Notice the kinds of tech that you or your friends are now using, Facebook, iPhones, and bluetooth headsets. Some people are evolving right before our very eyes.
This same evolution is going on with the information that we use, as it is moving to the cloud where our devices are just the access points to this info.
The sweet spot is the chatty innovator who is using your product or service and talking about it on the internets. These people are aware of what is going on because they are learning on the fly how to digest this deluge of information.
Does your site have a, blog, an RSS feed, video, an audio podcast? If it does great! You are feeding these innovators the information they want in a way they find usable, if not you are still living in a Web 1.0 world.
Web 2.0 is a phrase that we see bantered around all the time. To me a Web 2.0 website gives me the tools to Follow, and Interact with, the information that is being produced by the site, Either from the site owners themselves ( Like this blog ) or via user generated content, think Digg or Youtube.
Watch this scary and at the same time inspiring Ted Talk, that will point out the fires we are dancing thru today, and new ideas that are forming the basis of our tomorrows.
A billionaire, a passionate techie (QUICK GET THIS MAN AN IPHONE!) and a shrewd businessman, Bill Gates has changed the world once, while leading Microsoft to dizzying success. Now He plans to do it again with his very own style of philanthropy. Gates hopes to solve some of the world's biggest problems, from building great teachers to stopping Malaria. In a passionate and, yes, funny 18 minutes, he asks us to consider these two big questions and how we might answer them. (Check the Q&A on the TED Blog. http://blog.ted.com/ )
It is the holiday season and that begs the question, Can happiness be bought? Does fine wine bring happiness? A pair of bluejeans? How about a truffle or coffee that has been thru a small jungle creature?
For me happiness comes from creation, and seeing things used in new and exciting ways.
Watch this short TED talk and be thankful you are not a Kopi Luwak rustler.
From the 2007 Entertainment Gathering Conference Ian Dunbar, dog trainer, animal behaviorist and veterinarian, suggests we approach training from the point of view of the dog. This compassionate approach builds love and trust. These "interaction skills", as Ian Dunbar calls them can be applied to not only our relationships with our pets but all of our relationships.
Enjoy this 15 minutes talk from Ian Dunbar. I viewed this episode the last Sunday and it has been on my mind affecting my actions ever since. I hope you enjoy this presentation as much as I did.
Jay Walker, founder of Priceline.com and a speaker at TED, shares some the artifacts from his "Library of Human Imagination" and makes some predictions about our future. I for one would would love to be able to explore this incredible space created by Jay. Check out the full story about Jay Walkers Library of Human Imagination in Wired. What do you think was the most amazing thing you learned in 2008? Mind sharing with us?
J.J. Abrams traces his love of the unseen mystery -- the heart of Alias, Lost, and the upcoming Cloverfield -- back to its own magical beginnings, which may or may not include an early obsession with magic, the love of a supportive grandfather, or his own unopened Mystery Box.
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