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Future Minds: How The Digital Age is Changing Our Minds, Why This Matters and What We Can Do About It
 
 
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Future Minds: How The Digital Age is Changing Our Minds, Why This Matters and What We Can Do About It [Paperback]

Richard Watson
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 336 pages
  • Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing (7 Oct 2010)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 185788549X
  • ISBN-13: 978-1857885491
  • Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 94,904 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Richard Watson
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Product Description

Review

A great case for how to think, not what to think in these fast moving and complex times. Watson s message is clear – our innate imagination and human ability to think deeply about life and issues are the best assets we have to deliver us safely to the future. Full of wonderfully inspired quotations, sage predictions and abundance of source material this is a "how to" that is a definitely a "must have."
Ellen Sideri, Founder & CEO, ESP Trendlab, New York

"A reflective and insightful look into how the next generation will think, feel and shape our society"
Baroness Susan Greenfield, CBE author of ID: The Quest for Meaning in the 21st Century

--...

Product Description

We are on the cusp of a revolution. Mobile phones, computers and iPods are commonplace in hundreds of millions of households worldwide, influencing how we think and shaping how we interact. In the future, smart machines will compete with clever people for employment and even human affection. We are shifting to a world where knowledge will be automated and people will be rewarded instead as conceptual and creative thinkers. Hence being able to think and act in ways that machines cannot will become vital. Ideas are the currency of this new economy and curiosity and imagination are among the key raw materials. But what happens to the rigour of our thinking in a world where we never really sit still or completely switch off? What are some of the unexpected consequences of digital information on the 100 billion cells and quadrillion connections inside our brains? Future Minds illustrates how to maximise the potential of digital technology and minimise its greatest downside, addressing the future of thinking and how we can ensure that we unleash the extraordinary potential of the human mind. In this absorbing new book, discover all about: the sex life of ideas; the rise of the screenager; generations, gender and geography; delving deep inside your head; how to clear a blocked brain; why clever people make dumb mistakes; why we are so afraid of doing nothing; what we can do to reclaim our brains.

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews

8 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Was hoping for much more, 12 July 2011
I was hoping that this would be an in-depth study into the effects of the rise and rise of computers on human cognition and attention span but in reality it's just a grumpy old geezer's attack on all things technological. There's a scattergun approach to quoting studies without context and lazy generalizations from extreme cases made all over the place (apparently we need all scientists to be untidy or they'll never discover anything). I suppose the author thinks if only we all dropped out of college like Bill Gates we'd all be billionaires! He seems to really lack rigor and his arguments appear to be a set of anecdotes masquerading as evidence. Overall its disappointing but probably enjoyable for old curmudgeons who want their predjudices about modern kids reinforced.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Overrated, 6 Aug 2011
This review is from: Future Minds: How The Digital Age is Changing Our Minds, Why This Matters and What We Can Do About It (Paperback)
While I appreciate this book covers a topic worth discussing (otherwise why would I buy it?), I find the author's style very overbearing and overly personal. Often, something is presented as a truism "just because I say so", without significant facts to back it up and honestly, a lot of it seems to be written from a mish-mash of spoken presentations he has done, without any significant threads pulling it all together. I really struggled to get to the finish and I think you will too. I was almost glad the book ended early, as there are pages and pages of wasted references to other texts at the end, making the book twice the size it really is! Not good.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful guide to digital culture's impact on the brain and human society, 31 May 2011
By 
Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Future Minds: How The Digital Age is Changing Our Minds, Why This Matters and What We Can Do About It (Paperback)
Author and scenario planning consultant Richard Watson is clearly torn. One minute, he issues warnings about the negative effects of digital technologies on the brain and human society and discusses his fears that people pay insufficient attention to the possible consequences of these effects. The next minute, Watson is positively giddy and excited by the future potential of that same technology. The possibility of controlling machines with your mind, or improving your mental function by popping a pill, sounds like life in a science fiction utopia. But every utopia carries the possibility that it might turn into a dystopia that traps the human spirit: That's Watson primary concern and the insight he offers his readers. getAbstract recommends this book to anyone interested in futurism, cyberculture, digital technology or the ethics of human society.
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