100% Bullshit

[trickykitty]

Sent to me by Lolotehe, this guy's reaction to the Lucy trailer comes off as much, MUCH more subdued than my gut reaction of wanting to throw things at the movie screen and having roommates remind me that if I throw something at the screen we will not be able to watch the movie that we came to see and will probably get thrown out of the theater.

What he doesn't mention in that article is what I think is actually the more REAL reason why this myth perpetuates. It's because we DO have savants in our midst, and there are so many people that wish they could not only read a book in about an hour, but memorize the whole damn thing in the process. Who doesn't want to be the center of attention able to do massive calculations and weather on a given date at parties? There are even the more rare high IQ savant cases, showing that savantism doesn't require lowered IQ to exist.

And if it can exist in one individual, there's the chance it can exist in others.

The difference, though, isn't in how much of the brain is being used (100% is always being used or else the neurons atrophy and DIE - the brain really is a use-it-or-lose-it organ just like any other organ in the body), but in how the connections between the neurons work as well as the overall genetic build of the brain. Most people have a corpus callosum - Kim Peek did not. So unless you're willing to cut out a chunk of your brain for science and HOPE that you don't end up even more debilitated, like countless others out there with ACC, then by all means, grab your scalpel and get to work hacking and slashing at something you know little-to-nothing about. (I'm looking at you, average IQ person who thinks yoga can help with that 10% problem of yours.)

Perhaps during my lifetime I will get to see neuroscience uncover the connections that thankfully prevent information overload, and I shall cringe when people line up for injections that will stop those pesky brain inhibitions that allow us to be functional, irrational, dumb humans instead of know-it-all human calculators. Hasn't anyone ever seen Zardoz and actually understood the meaning of that movie? (No, not the meaning of how wonderful and awesome drugs in our lives is, but the meaning of the eternal search for everlasting life and genius IQ for all.)

Well, if you want to follow the research, I highly recommend reading up about the Human Connectome Project. I truly believe it's the brain wave of the future. (Ugh, why must my brain make such stupid puns?)

Comments

[wookiemonster]

YES YES YES!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

I have been debating so many people here and there on FB about this! I had one person say something about how we use all of our brain, but only 10% at any given time. I just...

But, thank you for this! :)

[trickykitty]

I'd rather someone at least go with the middle ground of saying we only using 10% at a given time than saying we only use 10% at all. I could say I'm only flexing 10% of my muscles while sitting in a chair operating a remote control, but that doesn't automatically mean I don't use 100% of my muscles. (I at least hope that the 10% of the brain other people think we use includes breathing and temperature controls while I'm brushing my teeth, otherwise I'm generally fucked.)

At least with that middle ground they aren't fully perpetuating the entire 10% myth and are working to chop away at other people's perceptions of it. Most of that secondary way of looking at it comes from the MRI images that are trying to track heavy activity during a certain mental exercise by excluding the areas of lesser activity (read: all the rest of the brain). Scan a newborn's brain and that thing's gonna be lit up like a Christmas tree, because everything is new, everything is novel, everything is noise, versus an adult or even young child where noise in the environment (noise in the input systems) are being filtered in order to focus on non-noise things with sharp teeth that can hurt you.

Also, I honestly had a previous co-worker say that she really should look into yoga to help her use more than 10% of her brain. I was behind a cubicle wall at the moment so she couldn't see my response, but my roommate who was also a co-worker at the time was across the room and could see both of us and had to stifle laughing at my ACTUAL headdesk response. She really did think yoga could help with her brain problem.........