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Beyond the Brain
We're constantly learning more about what the human brain can do. We’re also learning quite a bit more about what it can’t do. “[T]he brain is not an all-powerful, all-purpose thinking machine that we can command at will to learn or pay attention or remember,” science writer Annie Murphy Paul explains. “Rather, it’s a very specific and limited organ, one that evolved to carry out tasks that are very different from the ones we ask of it today.”
Paul took a deep dive into how some of modern civilization’s most celebrated minds have found ways to think outside of their brains, then explored the science behind those techniques. The conclusions she shares in her bold new book, The Extended Mind, are startling — and empowering.
“The biological brain is really good at certain things: sensing and moving the body, manipulating material objects, navigating through physical space and interacting with other people,” Paul says. “The more we can leverage these natural human strengths in the service of thinking, the easier and more effective our thinking will be.”
