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Technologies That Changed Our Brains

I think what the book… gave us a more attentive way of thinking. What the book does as a technology is shield us from distraction. The only thing going on is the, you know, the progression of words and sentences across page after page and so suddenly we see this immersive kind of very attentive thinking whether you are paying attention to a story or to an argument, or whatever. And what we know about the brain is the brain adapts to these types of tools.

And so the ways of thinking that we learned from the tools we can then apply in other areas of our lives. So we become, after the arrival of the printing press in general, more attentive more attuned to contemplative ways of thinking. And that’s a very unnatural way of using our mind. You know, paying attention, filtering out distractions. So the book, I think, like the map before it, like the clock, created or help create a revolution in the human mind in the way our habits of mind and ultimately the way we use our brains.

Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows, discusses how the map, the mechanical clock, and the printed book have shaped human thought, and how the human brain adapts to new technology at The Big Think:

One Comment

  1. This was very beautiful to hear. Thanks…

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