A fascinating book, well researched and immediately struck a cord with my thinking! ‘Brain Chains’: ‘Discover Your Brain, to Unleash Its Full Potential In a Hyperconnected, Multitasking World’. The author is Dr. Theo Compernolle. Belgian accent, and interviewed by Dr. Mercola, whom I follow and admire…it grabs your attention. Same again for sheer readability of his written word. Bottom line…it is really a message for all of us attempting but finding Multi-Tasking Impossible!
Several ‘brains’: Reflex, then Thinking…with limited Short Term Memory using and sharing our Reflective and Archiving. All intertwined in our Cerebral Cortex like one Processor! Analysis concludes Multi-Tasking Impossible!
Close to core interest of mine, ‘reflects’ Paleolithic brain development. Our ‘Reflex Brain’…explosive reaction… ‘fight’ or ‘flight’…some 600 million years in making!…literally only in present, reacting with all senses. Then: ‘Reflective Brain’, ONLY about 500,000 years old…sets us apart from all animals…can think back to past, no longer existing…project to the future, similarly conjecture, but amazing! We uniquely only animal with this reflective quality…and really only developed in last 500,000 years! That is just half a million years…mere drop in evolutionary history! Our ‘Archiving Brain’, uses the same ‘processor’, in our cerebral cortex, as our ‘Reflecting Brain’, and also our ‘Short Term Memory’. In a true efficiency style, when our ‘Reflecting Brain’ stops working…not actively engaged in reflecting on past, or conjecturing into future… so important to all our inventive, creative, organizational abilities…whilst we are asleep, important ‘Archiving’ is underway! This removes from daily ‘Short Term Memory’ also…as it were permanent.
In essence, whilst we think we are Multi-Tasking, in fact we are wasting time. We switch out of ‘Short Term’ ‘Reflective’ at huge time cost….in reality worse…it’s also REALLY Short Term Memory!….it has a small finite limit! Understanding this process, for example, whilst working with Computer and Cell phone important…BUT driving, is CRITICAL…and why so many rear end collisions without skid marks! The ‘Reflective Brain’ cannot accomplish the automatic sophistication and acquired habits that driving demands…to override it’s automatic elements, and engrossment and entanglement with our ‘Reflective Brain’ creates driving tragedies, like rear end collisions with no skid marks!…Why? Multi-Tasking Impossible!…stark reality…it’s also horribly inefficient when working, and with driving, positively dangerous!
