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Re: the ways brains change and develop resilience.
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Forwarded from 🔊 Effective Altruism • Intuitive Public Radio • IPR ••• (Max (Meg Morris))
YouTube
The Alphabet vs. The Goddess Lecture by Dr. Leonard Shlain
In this groundbreaking book, Leonard Shlain, author of the bestselling "Art & Physics," proposes that the process of learning alphabetic literacy rewired the human brain, with profound consequences for culture. Making remarkable connections across a wide…
Forwarded from 🔊 Effective Altruism • Intuitive Public Radio • IPR ••• (Max (Meg Morris))
99a9c9c09d0bc34e8cc25e25104857b945b8.pdf
308.3 KB
99a9c9c09d0bc34e8cc25e25104857b945b8.pdf
Forwarded from 🔊 Effective Altruism • Intuitive Public Radio • IPR ••• (Max (Meg Morris))
(screenshots of 4 Page PDF)
Forwarded from 🔊 Effective Altruism • Intuitive Public Radio • IPR ••• (Max (Meg Morris))
' 55th Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture
THE ALPHABET VERSUS
THE GODDESS: The Conflict
Between Word & Image
Leonard Shlain
[Editor’s Note: On October 26, 2007, Leonard Shlain, author of Alphabet Versus the Goddess, delivered the 55th Annual Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture. Mr. Shlain holds the position of Chairman of Laparoscopic surgery at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco and is an Associate Professor of Surgery at UCSF.]
A child learns a novel bit of information. A set of neurons fires in his or her brain. With each reinforcement of the lesson, the same neurons fire again, The surrounding neurons, sensitized to the discharges of the first set, also begin to join in what becomes an ever-magnifying electrochemical chorus. Learned information becomes “burned” into neuronal pathways. Such is the manner by which we acquire knowledge that will endure throughout our lives. Conversely, what we fail to learn causes the withering of whole tracts of other neurons as a result of their disuse. For example, a preschooler can learn a second language with ease if taught at the right time. The same individual having to learn that second language many years later in college will find it a far more difficult task.
But what effect does the kind of learning have on the larger organization of the human brain? Separating our species from virtually all others, we have two highly specialized brain hemispheres. Each lobe is designed to handle essentially
different types of information. The left lobe in over 90% of people is the seat of language that is perceived in a linear stream. We call this careful sequencing grammar and syntax, without which strings of words would be incoherent. The
majority of other linear, sequential mental processes such as logic, reason, algebra,
causality, and arithmetic also reside principally in the left hemisphere. In general, the main functions of the left proceed linearly — one thing after another — in time. It is as if evolution designed the left hemisphere as a new sense organ charged with perceiving sequential time.
THE ALPHABET VERSUS
THE GODDESS: The Conflict
Between Word & Image
Leonard Shlain
[Editor’s Note: On October 26, 2007, Leonard Shlain, author of Alphabet Versus the Goddess, delivered the 55th Annual Alfred Korzybski Memorial Lecture. Mr. Shlain holds the position of Chairman of Laparoscopic surgery at the California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco and is an Associate Professor of Surgery at UCSF.]
A child learns a novel bit of information. A set of neurons fires in his or her brain. With each reinforcement of the lesson, the same neurons fire again, The surrounding neurons, sensitized to the discharges of the first set, also begin to join in what becomes an ever-magnifying electrochemical chorus. Learned information becomes “burned” into neuronal pathways. Such is the manner by which we acquire knowledge that will endure throughout our lives. Conversely, what we fail to learn causes the withering of whole tracts of other neurons as a result of their disuse. For example, a preschooler can learn a second language with ease if taught at the right time. The same individual having to learn that second language many years later in college will find it a far more difficult task.
But what effect does the kind of learning have on the larger organization of the human brain? Separating our species from virtually all others, we have two highly specialized brain hemispheres. Each lobe is designed to handle essentially
different types of information. The left lobe in over 90% of people is the seat of language that is perceived in a linear stream. We call this careful sequencing grammar and syntax, without which strings of words would be incoherent. The
majority of other linear, sequential mental processes such as logic, reason, algebra,
causality, and arithmetic also reside principally in the left hemisphere. In general, the main functions of the left proceed linearly — one thing after another — in time. It is as if evolution designed the left hemisphere as a new sense organ charged with perceiving sequential time.
Forwarded from 🔊 Effective Altruism • Intuitive Public Radio • IPR ••• (Max (Meg Morris))
^
55th Anniversary Alfred Korzybski lecture by Leonard Shlain, The Alphabet vs The Goddess (PDF, 4 pages)
Link to internet file: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1aae/99a9c9c09d0bc34e8cc25e25104857b945b8.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjv9djfjbvfAhXJwVkKHXXgBj8QFjAMegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw3gQNBNMy92bUJuD9NlXJ_O
55th Anniversary Alfred Korzybski lecture by Leonard Shlain, The Alphabet vs The Goddess (PDF, 4 pages)
Link to internet file: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1aae/99a9c9c09d0bc34e8cc25e25104857b945b8.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjv9djfjbvfAhXJwVkKHXXgBj8QFjAMegQIBBAB&usg=AOvVaw3gQNBNMy92bUJuD9NlXJ_O