Book Club

Aside from that, Mind Hacks is really a clever introduction to contemporary neuroscience. The field of neuroscience has taken off greatly within the past twenty years or so. In the process, a lot of myths have been thrown out as Stafford and Webb show. The brain is not really a computer after all. It is a massively parallel information processing system that defies exact digital representation. Also, we use all of brain, not just 10 percent.

However, the most revolutionary aspect of contemporary neuroscience is that the we are learning more and more about how the brain works and how we function as humans. Move over Freud and Jung. The mysteries of biochemical reactions within the brain determine a lot more about human behavior than just analyzing sub-conscious thought. Pyschotherarpy is still helpful, but the advances in neuroscience suggest that we are getting closer and closer to a physiological understanding of what makes humans tick.

Stafford and Webb do not really grapple too deeply with the philosophical issues, but they do show the practical aside to the latest research. The exercises in the book give hands-on demonstrations of the different limitations and perculiarities of how the brain works. All you really need is access to the Internet and sometimes help from a willing friend to try out some of the experiments yourself.

Each "mind hack" in the book is really a short description of some aspect of brain behavior, often accompanied by one of Stafford and Webb's suggested experiments. The bulk of the book is oriented to the visual, since vision is the most complex information feature and where recent research has given the most results. But there is plenty of detail regarding attention, hearing, language, integration, moving, reasoning, togetherness, remembering, and interaction with others to keep things very interesting. If you like doing mental experiments and learning how they work, then you will really like this book.

Nevertheless, there are issues raised by Mind Hacks that imply a whole myriad of ethical and philosophical concerns. American's are using prescribed brain impacting drugs more and more to deal with everything from depression to sexual drive. There is a huge temptation to always be looking for the right pill to solve biochemical brain problems when other solutions might be more effective with less side effects. Do we really want to live lives that become so dependent on pharmaceuticals just make it through the day?

Furthermore, as we unlock these neurological secrets of the brain, what is there to prevent people from using this knowledge to manipulate other people? It is scary to realize how much money the advertising industry spends in trying to mine neuroscientific research for its own advantage.

And finally, the advances in neuroscience stand to revolutionize the essential core of Western individualism -- the concept of the self and personal identity. The advances in neuroscience are happening so quickly that many scientists are abandoning traditional concepts of the soul. Cartesian dualism between the soul and the body is indeed slipping away, but what is to be found in its place? The danger of reductionistic physicalism is that if all I am is a jumble of complex neuron cells firing away, then what is it that makes me "me"? If you can rearrange the neurons some other way to do something else, does that mean that I am no longer "me"? If that is the case, does the concept of "me" really mean anything?

Well, fortunately or not, Stafford and Webb do not really get into these questions, but I can not help but think about them as I discover how easily I can be fooled by ventriloquism and various optical illusions. On the other hand, you can simply not bother with these weighty matters and just enjoy picking up some pretty nifty brain tricks to do at your next party.

Review by: Clarke Morledge
December 22, 2005