For today’s class, you read the second chapter and digression from Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows. During the first ten minutes of class, write a brief summary of what you read. What was the main point of this chapter (the chapter’s thesis/unity of thought), and how does its point connect to what you see as the book’s overall thesis/unity of thought? Observing the relationships between the thesis of a chapter and a book is a larger form of the kinds of writing that you do in an essay, except the relationship is between the paragraphs and the essay. In both cases, successful writers sustain a unity of thought that connects together supporting evidence, examples, and counter arguments.
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The brain and in particular the contact barriers between the neurons could change the response based on a person’s experience. The second chapter of The Shallows by Nicholas Carr explains how culture shapes who we are. One culture in particular is the technology world and how people were born into technology such as the internet vs people who had to adapt to the internet and advance technology. A situation in life that happens between animal vs humans in particular is the nature vs nurture experience. Unlike animals automatically know what their purpose in life is from the time as a baby, humans are more close to nurture meaning a baby have to be train, and thought in order to seek knowledge of life.
The second chapter and digression from Nicholas Carrs The shallows, was about how our brains are wired to technology. There was a physiology professor Nietzsche who at the age of 34 was starting to have worsened health problems. He was losing focus, he couldn’t stay focused on reading and feared he would son have to stop writing. He later got a type writer that he became so addicted to, he started to remember the keys on the machine. It helped him to do his work and there was a slight change in how he would write. Later in the year, Nietzsche officially lost his eye site and prevented him from writing with the use of pen and paper. This book can be connected to John Medinas Brain Rules because they both talked about how the brain is not just plastic. It creates new ways of processing information and how it wires to different parts of the body. Over time the brain changes shape and makes new connections. In this chapter, car even explains hows he get inpatient when it comes to reading books. He said he would rather be on the computer and view links of articles, books, story, and other types readings.
The second chapter and digression from Nicholas Carrs The shallows, was about how our brains are wired to technology. There was a physiology professor Nietzsche who at the age of 34 was starting to have worsened health problems. He was losing focus, he couldn’t stay focused on reading and feared he would son have to stop writing. He later got a type writer that he became so addicted to, he started to remember the keys on the machine. It helped him to do his work and there was a slight change in how he would write. Later in the year, Nietzsche officially lost his eye site and prevented him from writing with the use of pen and paper. This book can be connected to John Medinas Brain Rules because they both talked about how the brain is not just plastic. It creates new ways of processing information and how it wires to different parts of the body. Over time the brain changes shape and makes new connections.
Nicholas Carr is obsessed with the idea that the internet does change our brain, and he gave quit remarkable backup to his claims. In this chapter, he discussed Friedrich Nietzsche’s experience slowly losing sight. He as a writer, so therefore, Nietzsche needed to find another way to write. He started using the Hansen Writing Ball, which is typewriter in the form of a sphere. Of course, it is another method to write, but what Carr wants to show is that changing Nietzsche’s writing method, it also affected his style of writing. Nietzsche himself recognized the fact, when he stated that “Our writing equipment does take part in the forming of our thoughts.” Carr then goes on and tries to explain how this is possible. There was always a belief that adult brains don’t change. It’ as if they were rocks that can’t be molded, or changed. Well, this turned out to be false, because as James Olds said, our brain is “very plastic.” Like plastic, our brains can change depending on what is going on around us. Therefore, Carr has a legit reason to state that because the internet is as big as it is, it can change the way we think. Our brains are made that way.
Within the second Chapter of Nicholas Carr’s “The Shallows”, we are introduced to several different people, whom of which Nicholas Carr uses in this chapter in order to convey his message. The very first person he mentions in Friedrich Nietzche, who was a German Philosopher, who’s writings had great influence on the western hemisphere. The reason why he introduced him to us was to talk about one of the first type writers ever made. Friedrich had began using this type writer because as time passed by, he was losing his vision. The typewriter enabled him the ability to write again once he learned where the keys to input the letters were. Yet, because of this type writer, it caused his writing style to change. It ended up causing him to have a more deliberate with his writing in order to try and convey his message towards who ever was reading his work. Following up with this, Nicholas Carr goes on to mentioning the research of several different psychologist based upon the plasticity of the human brain. This was because for a very long time it was believed that the brain couldn’t be malleable after you have fully grown. Yet due to research done, it has been proven that the brain, even when fully matured, is able to retain a certain degree of plasticity to it. This plasticity that the brain has enables us to continue to make new connections in our brain. Yet according to Nicholas, this is being interfered with our constant use and reliability of the internet and its many functionalities.
In the second chapter and digression as well, Nicolas car explain how complex does the brain was. He as same as many other scientist describe the human brain an organ as plasticity which means it has the ability to change through time, many experiments were conducted, and with this they prove what was saying before. This chapter includes how does our neurons and the different activities that we do can remap our brains. Many people thought that after an specific age the brain stop changing shape, but they were wrong the brain changes it shape even after the adult ages. it all depend in our experiences and how do we behave.
In this chapter he talks about the vital path, He starts by telling us a story about Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche is a Philology who teaches at the University of Basel in the late 1800’s Because of the injuries he suffer when he was young, the effect of it made him lose his eye sight. He was a write so losing is eye sight would me he could be a writer anymore, but that wasn’t the case. Technology came to the rescue. He orders a type writer, calling the writing ball. This mean that he could still be a writer now, because you really don’t need to see to type, you just need to memorize the key. Although now that he was still able to write, the way he writes change. His work was more compact, in the form of writing less and getting to the point. This is what Carr is trying to show, how with a simple technology such as a typewriter can change the way our brain works. Another effect was from the study of Pascual-Leone, he did an experiment on a group of people, half of them play the piano by actually playing it and the other half just image they’re playing it. After they’re both finish he did a brain scan and both of the group brains show the same activity. This shows how the brain is affect but everything even thoughts. Overall I learn how because of technology we’re doing less. This to me is not a bad thing, our worked is just more compacted.
In chapter two of “The Shallows” by Nicolas Carr, he reviews the history of how the brain adapts, functions, and develop. He gives an example of how a blind person learns how to read the language for blind people and how the visual part of his brain will be now processing information from sense of touch instead of sense of sight. This leads to the statement where if an individual loses one of his senses, all his other senses are developed and heighten to new levels. Carr also brings up the notion of our brain adapt to suit our needs. With habits and repetition these mental circuits aren’t easily altered. However, due to the internet, there are new mental circuits forming due to massively using the internet a day and this will change how our brains are wired.
In Nicholas Carr’s book “The Shallows” chapter two, he goes on to talk about how our brains are wired to technology. A physiology professor by the name of Nietzsche had started developing to health problems at the age of 34. His ability to pay attention started to deteriorate; he wasn’t able to concentrate on reading and feared he would eventually have to stop writing. As time passed, Nietzsche officially lost his eye site and prevented him from writing with the use of pen and paper. He eventually got a type writer that he started to helping him to remember the keys on the machine. It helped him to do his work and also change how he would write. Over time the brain changes its form and makes new connections. By Nietzsche being able to learn how to still write despite his blindness, demonstrates new ways of processing information and how it’s wired throughout the brain. Following this excerpt, Nicholas goes on to mention the research of several other psychologists based on the plasticity of the human brain. For long time it was thought that the brain wasn’t as malleable after you have fully grown. After a ton of research it’s been proven that the brain has able to retain a certain degree of plasticity, even when fully matured.
In this chapter of The Shallow by Nicholas Carr, he talks about how our brain is very malleable unlike how we think it is. The common assumption in the early 19th and 20th century was that the brain was formed and set during childhood, hardening when reaching the early 20s and after that, the brain decays. This is a common misconception because the brain constantly is changing and the brain doest really have one set “time” where its done “forming”. Also in this chapter, he talks about someone called Nietzsche who is a physiology professor who started developing health issues at the age of 34. He wasn’t able to concentrate and thus he started to fear his loss in ability to write and therefore he got a typewriter that was shaped like a ball. He remembered all the keys and knew how to write even though, he did lose his eyesight eventually.
Chapter two of Nicholas Carr’s “The Shallows” is very similar to the Wiring chapter of John Medina’s “Brain Rules” in that they both discuss the wiring of our brains along with how each part of the human body is linked to the brain. This chapter discusses the complex process of how neurons transmit information through electrical pulses. It was believed that the adult brain was fixed and no new neurons were created after your twenties, but research has proven that adult brains still continue to do these things. However, the brain of an adult is nowhere as malleable as to that of a child. This chapter also discusses research compared to George Ojemann, a neurosurgeon who uses a thin silver wire to send small electrical currents throughout the brain so that he could essentially map the brain. Canadian neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield used electrical probes to also try to map out the human brain. Unfortunately his results weren’t very precise. Many other scientists continue such experiments, researching how and where the brain reacts to different parts of the body.
In the book “The Shallows” by Nicholas Carr second chapter mainly talks about the brain rewiring its self the more we are on the internet. also he elaborates on the beliefs scientist had in the 19th and 20th centuries on the brain. They believed that the brain started forming and setting during childhood and setting in our 20s and then it starts to slowly decay. he explains that there were many test on the brain and found out that the brain does not stop changing after we reach an exact age. In the Digression he talks about what scientist believe the brain was for cooling down the blood that came from our hearts. They did not know the brain is were our memories, emotions and control of our body takes place like we do now a day.
The main statement the story was telling us that our brain rewires itself to adapt to certain circumstance. This was shown when Friedrich his vision, which affected his ability to write, but he was able to work, thanks to the writing ball. His brain adapted to this new way of writing, by remembering where every letter was located in the writing ball. Another case was when Sigmund Freud stop his research in order to find a job to support his marriage, by teaching student. His research affected him, so much that he had inspired his student continue his life work for him. This chapter follows John Medina book “brain Rules” chapter wiring, by stating that the way we learn and our environment helps rewire our brain. In both case, their brain was rewire to help them find a way to continue what they love to do.
In Nicholas Carr’s “The shallows”, Carr introduces chapter two “vital path “. In this part the chapter Carr describes the life of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche suffered tragedy where he received a injured from in the line of duty. Later in his life, Nietzsche started to experience serious headache and blindness. Carr mentions that before he when completely blind Nietzsche purchase a typewriter a Danish made Malling-Hansen Writing Ball. This sphere typing machine was created by Hans Rasmus Johann Malling-Hansen, the principal of the Royal Institute for the Deaf-Mute in Copenhagen, the writing ball was a strange instrument. It looked like an ornate golden pincushion. Fifty-two keys, for capital and lowercase letters as well special marks. This invention helps Nietzsche write again, after his blindness was final and Carr mention he had no problems learning how to use it while being blind. In my opinion, this a great example of the power if the brain. This is because when Nietzsche became blind his brain knows to that he need to improve in other areas of his life. The typing machine was just tool for Nietzsche to complement his lack of sight and communicates his ideas. Furthermore, in chapter two “A digression On What the Brain Thinks About When It Thinks About Itself”, was also introduced by Carr. In section of the chapter Carr talks about Aristotle and theory how the brain in the human body. Aristotle believed that brain function was to keep the rest of the body from overheating. Carr mention that Aristotle theory metaphor to the rain cycle. In society great scientists would probably laugh at Aristotle idea. To my understanding the brain is vital organ that keeps us alive and it allows to manage/control the rests of our bodies. Brain is like processor which grows depending on our much life we have left.
Chapter Two of the Shallows by Nicholas Carr talks about how the brain works and changes over time. The brain makes new paths and connections through each new experience. Every time we revisit our previous endeavors, we go deeper into our brains, something that was also mentioned in John Medina’s Brain Rules. Through century long experiments by many different scientists, we come to the conclusion that our brain continues to change over time, regardless of our growth in age. Experiments conducted on animals such as monkeys by Michael Merzenich and sea slugs by Eric Kandel help prove this point. The Digression focuses more on the human brain and why we have it.