This week I present “Disorderly genius: How chaos drives the brain,” a very interesting article by David Robson in the June 29, 2009 issue of the
New Scientist magazine. It is about the finding of neuroscientists that the human brain operates on the edge of chaos—and that its near-chaotic states may be crucial to memory and could explain why some people are smarter than others. “They say it’s a fine line between genius and madness,” says neuroscientist David Liley at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. “Maybe we’re finally beginning to understand the wisdom of this statement.”
IMAGE CREDIT: PHANIE AGENCY/REX FEATURESYour brain is like a pile of sand, but don’t worry: that’s why it has such remarkable powers
Read “Disorderly genius: How chaos drives the brain” in New Scientist now!A fitting companion piece to 'Disorderly Genius" is Jamais Cascio’s thought-provoking article, “Get Smarter,” in the July August issue of
The Atlantic magazine. Cascio, a San Francisco Bay Area-based writer and ethical futurist, suggests that when again faced by major threats to its survival as a species, humankind need not rely on natural evolution alone to avert extinction; instead, he says, people can start saving themselves now by boosting their intelligence through technology and pharmacology.
Read Jamais Cascio’s “Get Smarter” in The Atlantic now!
