Overclocking the Brain! But Can It Handle It?

An interesting aspect of living in a crowded city is that you often hear the most intimate details of inter-personal relationships.  For this we can thank the cellphone. These conversations usually take the form of Partner A ranting at Partner B about Partner B’s attention to Outsider C.  (In many cases, you can substitute xBox for Outsider C.)  And thanks to the cellphone we always have overbearing bosses, intrusive parents, sleazy bill collectors and irate lovers in our pocket. 

What is this constant assault on our emotions doing to our brain? 

Current technology is designed to adroitly take advantage of how our brains function.  In the past, luddites have bemoaned the moral effects of the non-stop exposure to radio, television and film.  Today maybe we should start worrying about the capacity for the brain to handle it.  As waning television ratings and CD sales have shown, these traditional forms of media have nothing today’s shiny toys.  New technology doesn't just push our buttons as uninvolved observers it gives us emotional rewards for active participation.  We become Dukes for checking-in and we raise virtual corn from virtual seeds. 

The creators of new technology are becoming amazingly adept at co-oping our brains’ emotional highways.  In the process they construct complex new systems of intermingling footpaths and byways.  Activities that had limited linkage now flood our head with ever strengthening networks in constant search of emotional rewards.  One of my online bills gives me points for early payment.  It has a cute little expanding bar that sparkles when I earn a get new point.  I love it when it does that.  I don’t know what I can do with the points but I’m hoping I can buy a virtual steak.

Now I am not one of those aforementioned luddites.  I am a tech junkie.  Right now I have a dozen web pages open on my dual screens.  Soon I will play a little Angry Birds on the iPhone before I fall asleep listening to a Twit podcast.  The powers and joys these new tools provide are often beyond yesterday’s science fiction.  But is there a point when we become emotional gluttons?  Will doctors someday spend more time trying to weaken calcified brain connections than unclogging arteries?

The brain is magnificent in its ability to link emotions, actions and thoughts.  The facility for making these connections has made us what we are.  But remember, the parts evolution provided us by chance were added to the mix when man was still trying to decide which limb gave a better view of the water hole.  The extra capabilities we have developed are serendipitous.  Being clever little primates, we were able to overclock our fat new heads to create language and pilates.  Imagine if our emotional response to sound stopped at reacting to a child’s cry or sensing the approach of a potential lunch.  Would John, Paul, George and Ringo have spent their life selling tyres in Liverpool?   When was the last time you saw your dog dancing to “Johnny Be Good”?

Is the cerebral cortex like the earth's oil supply?  Is there a day we will use up the brain’s capacity for new connections?  Or will these connections become so strengthened that they will no longer function?  Already, there is a theory that the recent growth in autism is due to an assault on the senses when the brain is most plastic.  And who is to say that increased input won’t have increase dementia and mental illness?  I have no idea what it all means but I find it hard to believe that we have an unlimited capacity mental button pushing.  One thing we are good at is overusing stuff.  Today we flush our Twitter accounts; tomorrow maybe we will flush our brains.

I have got to go because I have to dump a bunch of programs from my hard drive.  You see my computer is running really slow.

(As always, I am not a scientist.  I just buy their books.) 

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