Brains Inventing Themselves

Download Brains Inventing Themselves full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online Brains Inventing Themselves ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

Inventing Ourselves

Author : Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
Publisher : PublicAffairs
ISBN 13 : 1610397320
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (13 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Inventing Ourselves by : Sarah-Jayne Blakemore

Download or read book Inventing Ourselves written by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A tour through the groundbreaking science behind the enigmatic, but crucial, brain developments of adolescence and how those translate into teenage behavior The brain creates every feeling, emotion, and desire we experience, and stores every one of our memories. And yet, until very recently, scientists believed our brains were fully developed from childhood on. Now, thanks to imaging technology that enables us to look inside the living human brain at all ages, we know that this isn't so. Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, one of the world's leading researchers into adolescent neurology, explains precisely what is going on in the complex and fascinating brains of teenagers--namely that the brain goes on developing and changing right through adolescence--with profound implications for the adults these young people will become. Drawing from cutting-edge research, including her own, Blakemore shows: How an adolescent brain differs from those of children and adults Why problem-free kids can turn into challenging teens What drives the excessive risk-taking and all-consuming relationships common among teenagers And why many mental illnesses--depression, addiction, schizophrenia--present during these formative years Blakemore's discoveries have transformed our understanding of the teenage mind, with consequences for law, education policy and practice, and, most of all, parents.

Brains Inventing Themselves

Author : Conrad P. Pritscher
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN 13 : 9460917089
Total Pages : 234 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (69 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Brains Inventing Themselves by : Conrad P. Pritscher

Download or read book Brains Inventing Themselves written by Conrad P. Pritscher and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Neuroscience has found that neuroplasticity of brain cells allows brains to invent themselves. Remodeling of brains can be facilitated by schools and universities. What may be done to accelerate that positive inventing so as to prepare for rapidly accelerating change? As an IBM advertisement reads: “It is time to ask smarter questions.” This book helps the reader do that. What is worse than being blind to something? “Being blind to your blindness” says Eric Haseltine who has worked for both Disney and the National Security Agency. Being blind to what our brains can do is slowly changing. Brain researchers recently found that we can now be our own subjects of brain experimentation. Research shows how one can change one’s brain by changing one’s mind. In her 2010 high school valedictorian speech Erica Goldson courageously said: “The majority of students are put through the same brainwashing techniques in order to create a complacent labor force working in the interests of large corporations and secretive government, and worst of all, they are completely unaware of it.” This book shows professors, teachers, parents, and interested citizens how students can become aware and reach higher levels of consciousness.

Building a Second Brain

Author : Tiago Forte
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1982167386
Total Pages : 272 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (821 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Building a Second Brain by : Tiago Forte

Download or read book Building a Second Brain written by Tiago Forte and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-06-14 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Building a second brain is getting things done for the digital age. It's a ... productivity method for consuming, synthesizing, and remembering the vast amount of information we take in, allowing us to become more effective and creative and harness the unprecedented amount of technology we have at our disposal"--

A Thousand Brains

Author : Jeff Hawkins
Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 1541675800
Total Pages : 251 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (416 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis A Thousand Brains by : Jeff Hawkins

Download or read book A Thousand Brains written by Jeff Hawkins and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2021-03-02 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A bestselling author, neuroscientist, and computer engineer unveils a theory of intelligence that will revolutionize our understanding of the brain and the future of AI. For all of neuroscience's advances, we've made little progress on its biggest question: How do simple cells in the brain create intelligence? Jeff Hawkins and his team discovered that the brain uses maplike structures to build a model of the world—not just one model, but hundreds of thousands of models of everything we know. This discovery allows Hawkins to answer important questions about how we perceive the world, why we have a sense of self, and the origin of high-level thought. A Thousand Brains heralds a revolution in the understanding of intelligence. It is a big-think book, in every sense of the word. One of the Financial Times' Best Books of 2021 One of Bill Gates' Five Favorite Books of 2021

The Teenage Brain

Author : Frances E. Jensen
Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0062067869
Total Pages : 303 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (62 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Teenage Brain by : Frances E. Jensen

Download or read book The Teenage Brain written by Frances E. Jensen and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2015-01-06 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Bestseller Renowned neurologist Dr. Frances E. Jensen offers a revolutionary look at the brains of teenagers, dispelling myths and offering practical advice for teens, parents and teachers. Dr. Frances E. Jensen is chair of the department of neurology in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. As a mother, teacher, researcher, clinician, and frequent lecturer to parents and teens, she is in a unique position to explain to readers the workings of the teen brain. In The Teenage Brain, Dr. Jensen brings to readers the astonishing findings that previously remained buried in academic journals. The root myth scientists believed for years was that the adolescent brain was essentially an adult one, only with fewer miles on it. Over the last decade, however, the scientific community has learned that the teen years encompass vitally important stages of brain development. Samples of some of the most recent findings include: Teens are better learners than adults because their brain cells more readily "build" memories. But this heightened adaptability can be hijacked by addiction, and the adolescent brain can become addicted more strongly and for a longer duration than the adult brain. Studies show that girls' brains are a full two years more mature than boys' brains in the mid-teens, possibly explaining differences seen in the classroom and in social behavior. Adolescents may not be as resilient to the effects of drugs as we thought. Recent experimental and human studies show that the occasional use of marijuana, for instance, can cause lingering memory problems even days after smoking, and that long-term use of pot impacts later adulthood IQ. Multi-tasking causes divided attention and has been shown to reduce learning ability in the teenage brain. Multi-tasking also has some addictive qualities, which may result in habitual short attention in teenagers. Emotionally stressful situations may impact the adolescent more than it would affect the adult: stress can have permanent effects on mental health and can to lead to higher risk of developing neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression. Dr. Jensen gathers what we’ve discovered about adolescent brain function, wiring, and capacity and explains the science in the contexts of everyday learning and multitasking, stress and memory, sleep, addiction, and decision-making. In this groundbreaking yet accessible book, these findings also yield practical suggestions that will help adults and teenagers negotiate the mysterious world of adolescent development.

The Brain That Changes Itself

Author : Norman Doidge
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101147113
Total Pages : 447 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (11 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Brain That Changes Itself by : Norman Doidge

Download or read book The Brain That Changes Itself written by Norman Doidge and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007-03-15 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Fascinating. Doidge’s book is a remarkable and hopeful portrait of the endless adaptability of the human brain.”—Oliver Sacks, MD, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat What is neuroplasticity? Is it possible to change your brain? Norman Doidge’s inspiring guide to the new brain science explains all of this and more An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the human brain is immutable, and proving that it is, in fact, possible to change your brain. Psychoanalyst, Norman Doidge, M.D., traveled the country to meet both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity, its healing powers, and the people whose lives they’ve transformed—people whose mental limitations, brain damage or brain trauma were seen as unalterable. We see a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole, blind people who learn to see, learning disorders cured, IQs raised, aging brains rejuvenated, stroke patients learning to speak, children with cerebral palsy learning to move with more grace, depression and anxiety disorders successfully treated, and lifelong character traits changed. Using these marvelous stories to probe mysteries of the body, emotion, love, sex, culture, and education, Dr. Doidge has written an immensely moving, inspiring book that will permanently alter the way we look at our brains, human nature, and human potential.

The Brain in Search of Itself

Author : Benjamin Ehrlich
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN 13 : 0374718776
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (747 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Brain in Search of Itself by : Benjamin Ehrlich

Download or read book The Brain in Search of Itself written by Benjamin Ehrlich and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2022-03-15 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Passionate and meticulous . . . [Ehrlich] delivers thought-provoking metaphors, unforgettable scenes and many beautifully worded phrases." —Benjamin Labatut, The New York Times Book Review One of The Telegraph's best books of the year The first major biography of the Nobel Prize–winning scientist who discovered neurons and transformed our understanding of the human mind—illustrated with his extraordinary anatomical drawings Unless you’re a neuroscientist, Santiago Ramón y Cajal is likely the most important figure in the history of biology you’ve never heard of. Along with Charles Darwin and Louis Pasteur, he ranks among the most brilliant and original biologists of the nineteenth century, and his discoveries have done for our understanding of the human brain what the work of Galileo and Sir Isaac Newton did for our conception of the physical universe. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1906 for his lifelong investigation of the structure of neurons: “The mysterious butterflies of the soul,” Cajal called them, “whose beating of wings may one day reveal to us the secrets of the mind.” And he produced a dazzling oeuvre of anatomical drawings, whose alien beauty grace the pages of medical textbooks and the walls of museums to this day. Benjamin Ehrlich’s The Brain in Search of Itself is the first major biography in English of this singular figure, whose scientific odyssey mirrored the rocky journey of his beloved homeland of Spain into the twentieth century. Born into relative poverty in a mountaintop hamlet, Cajal was an enterprising and unruly child whose ambitions were both nurtured and thwarted by his father, a country doctor with a flinty disposition. A portrait of a nation as well a biography, The Brain in Search of Itself follows Cajal from the hinterlands to Barcelona and Madrid, where he became an illustrious figure—resisting and ultimately transforming the rigid hierarchies and underdeveloped science that surrounded him. To momentous effect, Cajal devised a theory that was as controversial in his own time as it is universal in ours: that the nervous system is comprised of individual cells with distinctive roles, just like any other organ in the body. In one of the greatest scientific rivalries in history, he argued his case against Camillo Golgi and prevailed. In our age of neuro-imaging and investigations into the neural basis of the mind, Cajal is the artistic and scientific forefather we must get to know. The Brain in Search of Itself is at once the story of how the brain as we know it came into being and a finely wrought portrait of an individual as fantastical and complex as the subject to which he devoted his life.

Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain

Author : Lisa Feldman Barrett
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin
ISBN 13 : 0358157145
Total Pages : 197 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (581 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain by : Lisa Feldman Barrett

Download or read book Seven and a Half Lessons about the Brain written by Lisa Feldman Barrett and published by Houghton Mifflin. This book was released on 2020-11-17 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the author of How Emotions Are Made, a myth-busting primer on the brain, in the tradition of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

Connectome

Author : Sebastian Seung
Publisher : HMH
ISBN 13 : 0547508174
Total Pages : 389 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (475 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Connectome by : Sebastian Seung

Download or read book Connectome written by Sebastian Seung and published by HMH. This book was released on 2012-02-07 with total page 389 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Accessible, witty . . . an important new researcher, philosopher and popularizer of brain science . . . on par with cosmology’s Brian Greene and the late Carl Sagan” (The Plain Dealer). One of the Wall Street Journal’s 10 Best Nonfiction Books of the Year and a Publishers Weekly “Top Ten in Science” Title Every person is unique, but science has struggled to pinpoint where, precisely, that uniqueness resides. Our genome may determine our eye color and even aspects of our character. But our friendships, failures, and passions also shape who we are. The question is: How? Sebastian Seung is at the forefront of a revolution in neuroscience. He believes that our identity lies not in our genes, but in the connections between our brain cells—our particular wiring. Seung and a dedicated group of researchers are leading the effort to map these connections, neuron by neuron, synapse by synapse. It’s a monumental effort, but if they succeed, they will uncover the basis of personality, identity, intelligence, memory, and perhaps disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. Connectome is a mind-bending adventure story offering a daring scientific and technological vision for understanding what makes us who we are, as individuals and as a species. “This is complicated stuff, and it is a testament to Dr. Seung’s remarkable clarity of exposition that the reader is swept along with his enthusiasm, as he moves from the basics of neuroscience out to the farthest regions of the hypothetical, sketching out a spectacularly illustrated giant map of the universe of man.” —TheNew York Times “An elegant primer on what’s known about how the brain is organized and how it grows, wires its neurons, perceives its environment, modifies or repairs itself, and stores information. Seung is a clear, lively writer who chooses vivid examples.” —TheWashington Post

Invention Of Memory

Author : Israel Rosenfield
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 270 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Invention Of Memory by : Israel Rosenfield

Download or read book Invention Of Memory written by Israel Rosenfield and published by . This book was released on 1988-05-15 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Self Comes to Mind

Author : Antonio Damasio
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0307379493
Total Pages : 385 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (73 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Self Comes to Mind by : Antonio Damasio

Download or read book Self Comes to Mind written by Antonio Damasio and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-11-09 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leading neuroscientist explores with authority, with imagination, and with unparalleled mastery how the brain constructs the mind and how the brain makes that mind conscious. Antonio Damasio has spent the past thirty years researching and and revealing how the brain works. Here, in his most ambitious and stunning work yet, he rejects the long-standing idea that consciousness is somehow separate from the body, and presents compelling new scientific evidence that posits an evolutionary perspective. His view entails a radical change in the way the history of the conscious mind is viewed and told, suggesting that the brain’s development of a human self is a challenge to nature’s indifference. This development helps to open the way for the appearance of culture, perhaps one of our most defining characteristics as thinking and self-aware beings.

Mind Wide Open

Author : Steven Johnson
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 0743258797
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (432 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Mind Wide Open by : Steven Johnson

Download or read book Mind Wide Open written by Steven Johnson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2004-02-27 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: BRILLIANTLY EXPLORING TODAY'S CUTTING-EDGE BRAIN RESEARCH, MIND WIDE OPEN IS AN UNPRECEDENTED JOURNEY INTO THE ESSENCE OF HUMAN PERSONALITY, ALLOWING READERS TO UNDERSTAND THEMSELVES AND THE PEOPLE IN THEIR LIVES AS NEVER BEFORE. Using a mix of experiential reportage, personal storytelling, and fresh scientific discovery, Steven Johnson describes how the brain works -- its chemicals, structures, and subroutines -- and how these systems connect to the day-to-day realities of individual lives. For a hundred years, he says, many of us have assumed that the most powerful route to self-knowledge took the form of lying on a couch, talking about our childhoods. The possibility entertained in this book is that you can follow another path, in which learning about the brain's mechanics can widen one's self-awareness as powerfully as any therapy or meditation or drug. In Mind Wide Open, Johnson embarks on this path as his own test subject, participating in a battery of attention tests, learning to control video games by altering his brain waves, scanning his own brain with a $2 million fMRI machine, all in search of a modern answer to the oldest of questions: who am I? Along the way, Johnson explores how we "read" other people, how the brain processes frightening events (and how we might rid ourselves of the scars those memories leave), what the neurochemistry is behind love and sex, what it means that our brains are teeming with powerful chemicals closely related to recreational drugs, why music moves us to tears, and where our breakthrough ideas come from. Johnson's clear, engaging explanation of the physical functions of the brain reveals not only the broad strokes of our aptitudes and fears, our skills and weaknesses and desires, but also the momentary brain phenomena that a whole human life comprises. Why, when hearing a tale of woe, do we sometimes smile inappropriately, even if we don't want to? Why are some of us so bad at remembering phone numbers but brilliant at recognizing faces? Why does depression make us feel stupid? To read Mind Wide Open is to rethink family histories, individual fates, and the very nature of the self, and to see that brain science is now personally transformative -- a valuable tool for better relationships and better living.

Postcards from the Brain Museum

Author : Brian Burrell
Publisher : Broadway
ISBN 13 : 9780385501286
Total Pages : 356 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (12 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Postcards from the Brain Museum by : Brian Burrell

Download or read book Postcards from the Brain Museum written by Brian Burrell and published by Broadway. This book was released on 2004 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the near-obsessive nineteenth-century research of top scientific minds to locate possible anatomical signs of genius, criminal behavior, and insanity, discussing the posthumous brain examinations of such figures as Albert Einstein, Walt Whitman, and Vladimir Lenin. 30,000 first printing.

Age of Opportunity

Author : Laurence D. Steinberg
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 13 : 0544279778
Total Pages : 277 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (442 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Age of Opportunity by : Laurence D. Steinberg

Download or read book Age of Opportunity written by Laurence D. Steinberg and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2014 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leading expert on adolescence cites new research and describes how to raise happy, successful kids by helping parents navigate this challenging, but developmentally crucial, time through strategies that instill self-control during the teenage years. 25,000 first printing.

Being You

Author : Anil Seth
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1524742880
Total Pages : 352 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (247 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Being You by : Anil Seth

Download or read book Being You written by Anil Seth and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2021-10-19 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A Best Book of 2021—Bloomberg Businessweek; A Best Science Book of 2021—The Guardian; A Best Science Book of 2021—Financial Times; A Best Philosophy Book of 2021—Five Books; A Best Book of 2021—The Economist Anil Seth's quest to understand the biological basis of conscious experience is one of the most exciting contributions to twenty-first-century science. What does it mean to “be you”—that is, to have a specific, conscious experience of the world around you and yourself within it? There may be no more elusive or fascinating question. Historically, humanity has considered the nature of consciousness to be a primarily spiritual or philosophical inquiry, but scientific research is now mapping out compelling biological theories and explanations for consciousness and selfhood. Now, internationally renowned neuroscience professor, researcher, and author Anil Seth is offers a window into our consciousness in BEING YOU: A New Science of Consciousness. Anil Seth is both a leading expert on the neuroscience of consciousness and one of most prominent spokespeople for this relatively new field of science. His radical argument is that we do not perceive the world as it objectively is, but rather that we are prediction machines, constantly inventing our world and correcting our mistakes by the microsecond, and that we can now observe the biological mechanisms in the brain that accomplish this process of consciousness. Seth has been interviewed for documentaries aired on the BBC, Netflix, and Amazon and podcasts by Sam Harris, Russell Brand, and Chris Anderson, and his 2017 TED Talk on the topic has been viewed over 11 million times, a testament to his uncanny ability to make unimaginably complex science accessible and entertaining.

Your Brain Is a Time Machine: The Neuroscience and Physics of Time

Author : Dean Buonomano
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393247953
Total Pages : 357 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (932 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Your Brain Is a Time Machine: The Neuroscience and Physics of Time by : Dean Buonomano

Download or read book Your Brain Is a Time Machine: The Neuroscience and Physics of Time written by Dean Buonomano and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2017-04-04 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Beautifully written, eloquently reasoned…Mr. Buonomano takes us off and running on an edifying scientific journey." —Carol Tavris, Wall Street Journal In Your Brain Is a Time Machine, leading neuroscientist Dean Buonomano embarks on an "immensely engaging" exploration of how time works inside the brain (Barbara Kiser, Nature). The human brain, he argues, is a complex system that not only tells time, but creates it; it constructs our sense of chronological movement and enables "mental time travel"—simulations of future and past events. These functions are essential not only to our daily lives but to the evolution of the human race: without the ability to anticipate the future, mankind would never have crafted tools or invented agriculture. This virtuosic work of popular science will lead you to a revelation as strange as it is true: your brain is, at its core, a time machine.

The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains

Author : Nicholas Carr
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 9780393079364
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (793 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by : Nicholas Carr

Download or read book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains written by Nicholas Carr and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2011-06-06 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction: “Nicholas Carr has written a Silent Spring for the literary mind.”—Michael Agger, Slate “Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply? Now, Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. As he describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind”—from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer—Carr interweaves a fascinating account of recent discoveries in neuroscience by such pioneers as Michael Merzenich and Eric Kandel. Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence reveals, change in response to our experiences. The technologies we use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute our neural pathways. Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to McLuhan, Carr makes a convincing case that every information technology carries an intellectual ethic—a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. He explains how the printed book served to focus our attention, promoting deep and creative thought. In stark contrast, the Internet encourages the rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of information from many sources. Its ethic is that of the industrialist, an ethic of speed and efficiency, of optimized production and consumption—and now the Net is remaking us in its own image. We are becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are losing is our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection. Part intellectual history, part popular science, and part cultural criticism, The Shallows sparkles with memorable vignettes—Friedrich Nietzsche wrestling with a typewriter, Sigmund Freud dissecting the brains of sea creatures, Nathaniel Hawthorne contemplating the thunderous approach of a steam locomotive—even as it plumbs profound questions about the state of our modern psyche. This is a book that will forever alter the way we think about media and our minds.