The Human Brain Evolving

The theory of evolution has been around for less than two hundred years. Every day, human beings continue to advance themselves in medicine, technology, and science. Society grows and expands and new inventions come along now and then that makes our existence that much easier. In looking at Darwin’s theories of evolution and survival of the fittest, one can see that man is truly the fittest being on this planet. People are constantly trying to make our lives easier. My revelation after looking at Darwin’s research and other readings is that human brains are continuing to expand and not just due to natural evolution but also to the change in technology.

One way people continue to adapt and change is in brain power and functionality. Believe it or not, people are indeed getting smarter. In the online article “Get Smarter” by Jamais Cascio, Cascio talks about the neurophysiologist William Calvin. “According to Calvin, the reason we survived is that our brains changed to meet the challenge: we transformed the ability to target a moving animal with a thrown rock into a capability for foresight and long-term planning”. Calvin has suggested, very successfully, that human brains have continued to evolve and change to meet the demands of today’s society. The world has become a fast paced place to live and with information being thrown at us every day in large proportions, our brains need to be able to store is effectively. We have also become much better at taking data that we have already acquired and turning it into a plan or sort of foresight, as proposed by Calvin. This idea of a type of foresight is also mentioned in the short story by Phillip K. Dick, “The Golden Man”. In this story, Cris Johnson is a much evolved individual with the ‘power’ to see ahead and plan out the best course of action for survival. “He can look ahead. See what’s coming. He can – prethink. Let’s call it that. He can see into the future” (Dick 48).This story is an exaggerated version of Calvin’s ideas of the human brain’s evolution. This evolution of the human brain just shows the constant adaptation of the human body to fit the constantly changing world.

On the flip side, there are certain mediums that people say are making us stupid. In Nicholas Carr’s article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Carr talks about the prospect that the Google search engine is making human’s stupid. “My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles. Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski”. Carr is talking about how Google searches make it so that when people obtain information, they expect it to be very clear right off. If that information is not easily read or understood then their brain will tell them to go to the next source. Some people say this is making us stupid. However, there is another way to look at it as well. Being able to find information easily and quickly is not necessarily a bad thing. This ability to quickly skim a source is an adaptation of our brain that allows people to find what they are looking for effectively and efficiently. Google is not necessarily making us stupid, it is making us look at and obtain information differently. It is helping us find all of this knowledge very easily. This idea of making things easier is all around us in this new technology age. Even in the time of Phillip K. Dick there were many inventions to make our lives easier. This is modeled in his short story “Pay for the Printer”. In this story he talks about human beings losing the ability to create due to the introduction of an alien race that does it all for them.



This video discusses the ideas that technology is in fact changing how our minds work. Dacher Keltner is saying that our senses are changing because technology is making them. His question to the class about being in love with someone they have not ever physically met raises a good point. How can you really feel such a strong emotion towards someone without having actually met them in real life? I personally know a few people who have actually 'fallen in love' over the internet and with a couple of them it has worked out. This is a huge revelation in technology and the human brain. We have begun to feel without having to see. Technology is creating a bigger gap in our emotions.

Human brains are continuing to evolve and change even though things have become much easier to do. Information is so readily available but the brain still stores it all. This vast amount of data is stored in the brain and will continue to be stored there until better, more relevant data comes along. This constant change in technology and science alters the way humans think and perceive new concepts and ideas. This new perception is an evolution of the brain. So stupider is not what we are becoming. More advanced and efficient is a much better way to put it.

Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Atlantic. 2007. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

Cascio, Jamais. “Get Smarter.” The Atlantic, July/August 2009. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200907/intelligence

Dick, Phillp K. “The Golden Man” The Phillp K Dick Reader, New York: Citadel Press. 1987.

"YouTube - Is Technology Changing Our Brains? - Dacher Keltner." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. Web. 30 Nov. 2009. .