Will Blackberrys Alter the Brains of Future Generations?

October 31, 2008

Will Blackberrys Alter the Brains of Future Generations?

We've all descended from a common ancestor, but, as Homo sapiens, we no longer brachiate through trees and have long abandoned our stone tools for Blackberrys and iPods. Evolution has shaped us into the big-brained, bipedal, text-messaging specimens we are today. But it didn't happened without a lot of pressure. SETI Radio takes a look at some of the forces that have driven human evolution - from the snake-phobia that sharpened our eyesight, to the anger-management that was a prerequisite for civilization.

Also, how your Blackberry may be changing the brains of future generations. And, are we engineering our own successors through robotics?

Guests:

Lynne Isbell - anthropologist, University of California, Davis
Timothy Taylor - archeologist, the University of Bradford in the U.K.
Nicholas Wade - science writer, New York Times, author of Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors
Lee Gutkind - author of Almost Human: Making Robots Think

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Comments

GOOD question : Yes our and my Black Berry may alter our brain and the brain of the future men....Yes it might...BUT we do not know.

Can intense messaging lifestyle and computer based work modify the brain connections ???...Yes it can...but how we can be sure we trasmit this possible change (our) to the future men ?? A genetic variation-mutation ??

There is NO evidence at all.

Therefore there are expectations of intense debates and controversy among the professors mentioned above.

Can (future) 'robotics supported lifestyle' modify the sapiens-sapiens brain and intelligence of the future human kind ??

Yes may be .....or might be ...or may have no influence at all.

We do not know.

We do not know if we were just an evolution of the Neanderthal...or similar ...or something 'magics' occurred....to our brain and brain connections...and genes.
The probability density of both events-cases is evenly distributed....most likely.

PLEASE publish the results of the debate of the scientists above...so that we also listen to and understand their 'opinion'.

Posted by: claudio | November 01, 2008 at 02:43 PM

You're really assuming our technology will stay the same while evolution takes its course (doubtful). We are reaching the point of technological explosions (Singularity?) too with a chance the Singularity might occur. If we merge with our machines, we become our own descendants, so the machines may be our natural successors.

However, most humans don't consider themselves animals anyway. We may finally be on the verge of capturing the image of what we truly are instead of what biology has trapped us in.

Posted by: Assumptions | November 03, 2008 at 05:36 PM