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Susan Greenfield is a British neuroscientist who has presented to the House of Lords. In Mind Change, she discusses research and her concerns about what changes technology might be causing to human minds and therefore to society.

I’m liking

Baroness Greenfield has a great deal of experience in the human brain and how it works and adapts to its surroundings, and she has investigated a lot of research that relates to human brains and technology. Throughout the book, she mentions positive and negative impacts of technology and refers to a huge number of articles and research projects. There is an extensive list of references for readers to follow up if they want to know more.

The book really came together at the end when the author summarised her points.I was particularly interested by the author’s picture of the potential future, with people connected at all times while missing out on real connections with other people.

I was intrigued by the research that had found that people were more narcissistic and had less empathy as a result of using technology. I don’t think that’s a good thing for us!

Things that made me go hmmmm

I found that the book jumped around a bit, and that sometimes it seemed to be a collection of findings from research that were missing a conclusion or a summary explaining why it was important. I found that some of the author’s conclusions seemed to be well-founded based on her research, but some others didn’t convince me so much. Some of the chapters could have been made more concise.

The author appeared to be trying to be very even-handed about the impacts of technology, but sometimes her point of view was obviously negative! I felt she could have just acknowledged that by explaining why.

The conclusion

Susan Greenfield has concerns about the impact of technology on our brains and our lives and society. It’s very easy for me to just make use of technology without thinking of some of the issues involved and the long-term impact. This book has made me think, and I would like to see more public debate on the topic.

I would recommend this book to someone who is willing to invest some time and thought in the matter, but I think I would look for a shorter, clearer book on the topic as well.

Mind Change is available from Fish Pond for around $40.

Author

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