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 moral of the first part of the story involving Friedrich Nietzsche is, technology is highly useful to help you get over physical ability but, in using it the quality of your work could be reduced or changed completely if your thoughts donāt start on pen or paper. āMy thoughts in music and language often depend on the quality of pen and paper.ā In the chapter it states that, āEven as our knowledge of the physical workings of the brain advanced during the last century… The structure of the adult brain is true; it would explain why older aged men find it hard to get accustomed to new technology. Overall, the chapter speaks about the brain, nerve ends, nerve maps drawn, and various experiments were performed and humans and monkeys involving the brain. A digression: Famous Historians like Aristotle has his thoughts on the human brain but, this theory was led astray. Many other theories didnāt add up because, āThe brain, and the mind to which it gives rise is forever a work in progressā.
Nicholas Carr begins the chapter talking about a guy who he describes as “desperate”, named Friedrich Nietzsche. In Nietzsche early twenties he fell of of a horse and his health began to worsen, forcing him to resign as a philosophy professor at the University of Basel. His vision was failing, and as a writer it was hard for him to focus on a page as it would bring him painful headaches and vomiting. Something that saved his writing was the “Danish-made malling Hansen Writing Ball” which Nietzsche describe as making him “feel better than ever” and it was all thanks to the type wrier. The machine had an effect on how he was writing, the style of it had changed. His writing equipment had a part in forming our thoughts. J.Z Young, a British Biologist argued that the stricture of the brain might be in a constant state of flux, adapting to whatever task it’s called on to perform”. Overall I feel that the things we use effect how our brain changes, it will either slow down our thinking or quicken it.
Long ago we used to believe that the human body used to function from the heart because everything seemed to be centered in the heart area, everything from blood flow to air. As the years progressed we would go from the heart to the brain to your spirit (consciousness) and then back to the brain. Weāve just recently figured out the real function of the brain. Which is the brain being able to change in other words it has plasticity. We also used to think that as we become adults our brains donāt change at all, but the fact is the brain has less plasticity then when we were younger.
The technologies which we use to do our daily works leaves a trace of its own. one example of that is Mr. Friedrich Nietzsche a German philosopher . Nicholas Carr begins the chapter talking about a guy named Friedrich Nietzsche. He wasn’t very old but he was sick all the time. In his early twenties he fell of a horse and since then he had to be in his bed all the time. Which forced him to resign his job at the University of Basel. His condition was going from bad to worse .He also noticed that he started to lose his vision. But he couldn’t tolerate that as he was too passionate about his writing .So he bought a āHansen Writing Ballā( A type writer). He memorized the position of all the keys and he was able type without seeing. It made him feel better than ever . By using his new type writer he was able continue his work. However the machine had an effect the way he was writing. It was very hard to type in that machine for a long time. So he was forced to write less and be straight to the point. People started to notice the change in his writing style. His writing equipment had left a trace of its own in Nicholas Carr’s work. Technology is very useful and it can help us to get over different physical disabilities but it could be reduce or alter our works!
Rahat Ahmed
Professor. Ellis
English 1101
11/15/15
The Shallows, Two and a Digression
In this chapter of ā The Shallowsā called āTwo and a Digressionā Nicholas Carr mainly talks about how the human brain changes over the course of our life time. Many experiments and testing occurred over the centuries to put together evidence that the brain did not stop changing after a certain age. As a kid I was always a bit confused about whether the human brain changes or stay the exact same as long as we live. After reading this very interesting chapter it very much clear to me that in fact the human brain does change constantly. The brain is constantly rewiring with each new experience and situations that we find ourselves in our daily lives. Throughout the course of our life time as human, we make memories every single day some are bad and some are good but regardless of its kind we do make memories that tends to add to our past experiences and stay in our brain. After reading this chapter I have realized that the brain contains our memories, our skills, our experiences that we make.
In chapter 2 of The Shallow, Nicolas Carr focuses on how did the typewriter affected Friedrich Nietzche. According to Carr, āOne of Nietzcheās closest friend, the writer and composer Heinrich Kolselitz, noticed a change in the style of his writing.ā This caught my attention because just a simple tool such as typewriter had a huge effect on Nietzcheās writing. Nietzcheās writing became more ātighterā and āmore telegraphicsā. As we learn and experience new knowledge our brain tends to rewire itself and change its shape physically. Carr also mentioned some theories of well known theorists, such as Sigmund Fraud, and Aristotle. Technology controls our brain and our thoughts.
In chapter 2 and āa Digressionā Nicholas Carr explained about how our brain change throughout our life from the experiences and memories. He also explained that how technology effect our brain. To prove his point Carr gave example of a famous philosopher name Friedrich Nietzsche. When Nietzsche was in his early 20s, he fell from the horse and got injured badly, which lead him to resign from University of Basel as a philosophy professor. Due to that injury he began to lose his vision and it was getting harder for him to focus on while he was writing. Then he began to use āDanish-made malling Hansen Writing Ballā which was a typewriter. But his writing changed when he began to use typewriter. The reason for that was typewriter has too many keys and Nietzsche had to type without his vision, which made effect on his brain and changed his writing. So the basic point is that technology changing the way our brain works.
The start of the chapter we have Nicholas Carr starting us off with a story about a man who he states is desperate. The mans name was Friedrich Nietzsche and he was a twenty year old man who had become injured from falling off a horse. As his injuries healed, his health got worse. He was a determined individual regardless so he purchased a typewriter and memorized where all the keys were and was able to write even without his vision. The problem was that the machine changed the way he wrote things. Due to the machine he found him self writing less and less. The point behind this example was that technology can be useful but it can also be harmful to us if we are not careful.
The Vital Paths is based on the history of the brain. This Talks about how the brain functions such as synapses, dendrite and axons. There were experiments done with a monkey and another test done with people who lost their legs and arms. Because of the adaptability of neurons, sense of hearing and touch can become āsharper due to loss of sight.ā The way we think, recognize and act are not determined by our genes but by our childhood experiences.Brains have changed through imagination and thoughts. The brain can also build new or unusual circuits through physical or mental practice and can cause the brain to weaken if we neglect it.
Carr starts off this chapter with a story of Friedrich Nietzsche a man who had a hard time with his vision. Friedrich, being a writer, needed to be able to stare at a page and write which became a problem because he would get headaches and become exhausted. To solve this problem, Friedrich ordered a Malling Hansen writing ball, which with only knowledge of where the right letter is, Friedrich could finally write without having his eyes open. Carr then goes on to explain how they found the plasticity of the brain, and how it changes as we learn, leaving behind some things and picking up others.
This chapter is basically about the wiring of the brain, and the developments, and how the experiences we go through in our lives have an impact on our brain. In this time kids grow up with technology and their brains are programmed to know how to use that technology to their benefit. Our ancestors grew up in a time were they had to interact more and think more to survive in their environment. They used to go out and hunt to survive, whereas now kids depend on the internet to get all their information and their brains become accustomed to that type of survival. Another thing is that our brains develop through memories, and depending on the type of memory that is stored in your brain, that brings about the type of emotional level you are at and what emotions trigger when you are in a certain situation. The experiences the brain goes through is the level where it is at and will be transmitted on to society as a whole.
Carr started the chapter talking about the changes in our brain. Then he went to talk about Friedrich. He explained to us how Friedrich fell from a horse when he was in early 20’s years old. He suffer numerous of health problem due to that injury. Afterward he lost his sight but the other senses got sharper. he quit his job, now when he writes he use the “Hansen writing ball” . He had to memorize the position in which the letter were.This little story was to show us that Technology can affect our brain.
In the second chapter of “The Shallows”, Nicholas Carr explains to us how technology can affect our brain over time, if our brains become accustomed to using it. He iterates the story of Friedrich Nietzsche, a man who was a writer, but became unable to write due to an injury he suffered falling from a horse. To solve his problem, he began using a new technology, the Hansen Writing Ball (which could only be used efficiently with knowledge of where the keys were), to continue his writing. Over time, of course, Carr says Nietzsche’s brain grew to adapt to the use of this technology. Therefore, it is fair to say that this technology indeed changed his brain itself, as our technologies today may be changing ours. In the digression, Carr talks about the brain changing all the time, but never seeming to gather any sensory knowledge about itself.
In the second chapter, Friedrick Nietzsche has been forced to curtail his writing and he feared he would soon have to give it up based on his condition. However, he ordered a typewriter. Fifty-two keys for capital and lowercase letters as we as numerals and punctuation marks, from the top of the ball in a concentric arrangement scientifically designed to enable the most efficient typing. A person could type as many as eight hundred characters a minute. But the device had a subtler effect on his work because it change his style of writing. Nietzsche says “our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thought. Sigmond Freud says our brains are made up of many separate cells and the gaps between the cells and play a big role in shaping our memories and our thoughts.
In Chapter 2 of The Shallows by Nicholas Carr, Carr speaks about the changes that take place in our brain. He goes on to talk about Friedrick Nietzsche, a man who had vision problems. This not being well because he was a writer. Nietzsche being a writer and having a vision problem was not so convenient to him because he needed to see what he was writing to make sure everything was the way it was supposed to be. So he ordered a typewriiter. While using this typewriter it changed the way he wrote because his brain had to become accustomed to all the buttons he had to press to get his work completed. The point of Carr bringing this up is to show the effect that technology is having on the human brain. It is making it harder and harder for the brain to function and making us rely more and more on the technology than we should actually need to.
In chapter two of ‘The Shallows’ Carr discusses the research that has been done on the brains function. He refers to J.Z. Young a biologist, Young states, ” there is evidence that the cells of our brains literally develop and grow bigger with use, and atrophy or waste away with disuse”.(21) He goes on to say how how we “Our way of thinking, perceiving, and acting, we now know, are entirely determined by our genes. Nor are they entirely determined by our childhood experience. We change them through the way we live”. In other words our brain adapts to the new environment we present it to.
Chapter 2 of the Shallows by Nicholas Carr, carr talks about the brain and how it works due to experiences. He also talks about how in the 19th and 20th centuries the brain was thought to form in the early childhood. He also talks about Friedick Nietzsche who was writer that lost his vision. After losing his vision he switched to using a typewriter and differences was seen in writing. Carr is explaining that technology changes us and how our brain operates over time.