i think we recognize on some level that these things do affect our thinking, because the value of mental extensions is really bit up high. It costs more money to live in a beautiful green space than in a barren in kna. These aren't just aesthetic preferences, thor really survival instincts, you know. And when we're a setting like that that feels protected and yet also gives us a wide vista for for looking out, we feel safe. We feel we have more mental bandwits to think, to think and to plan.
In this conversation about her new book, the acclaimed science writer Annie Murphy Paul explodes the myth that the brain is an all-powerful, all-purpose thinking machine that works best in silence and isolation. We are often told that the human brain is an awe-inspiring wonder, but its capacities are remarkably limited and specific. Humanity has achieved its most impressive feats only by thinking outside the brain: by “extending” the brain’s power with resources borrowed from the body, other people, and the material world. The Extended Mind tells the stories of scientists and artists, authors and inventors, leaders and entrepreneurs — Jackson Pollock, Charles Darwin, Jonas Salk, Friedrich Nietzsche, Watson and Crick, among others — who have mastered the art of thinking outside the brain. It also explains how every one of us can do the same, tapping the intelligence that exists beyond our heads — in our bodies, our surroundings, and our relationships.