The Brain is Wider Than the Sky
Why Simple Solutions Don't Work in a Complex World
Published on 10. November 2011
288 pages
978-0-297-86031-0 (ISBN)
Description
'A beautifully written defence of human complexity in the face of the corporate mechanisation of our lives. If you are frustrated by automated queuing, this is one for you' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
'An acerbic expose of the empty promise of the computer age' SUNDAY TIMES
Simplicity has become a brand and a cult. People want simple lives and simple solutions. And now our technology wants us to be simpler, to be 'machine readable'. From telephone call trees that simplify us into a series of 'options' to social networks that reduce us to our purchases and preferences, we are deluged with propaganda urging us to abandon our irreducibly complex selves.
At the same time, scientists tell us we are 'simply' the products of evolution, nothing more than our genes. Brain scanners have inspired neuroscientists to claim they are close to cracking the problem of the human mind. 'Human equivalent' computers are being designed that, we are told, will do our thinking for us. Humans are being simplified out of existence.
It is time, says Bryan Appleyard, to resist, and to reclaim the full depth of human experience. We are, he argues, naturally complex creatures, we are only ever at home in complexity. Through art and literature we see ourselves in ways that machines never can. He makes an impassioned plea for the voices of art to be heard before those of the technocrats. Part memoir, part reportage, part cultural analysis, THE BRAIN IS WIDER THAN THE SKY is a dire warning about what we may become and a lyrical evocation of what humans can be. For the brain is indeed wider than the sky.
'An acerbic expose of the empty promise of the computer age' SUNDAY TIMES
Simplicity has become a brand and a cult. People want simple lives and simple solutions. And now our technology wants us to be simpler, to be 'machine readable'. From telephone call trees that simplify us into a series of 'options' to social networks that reduce us to our purchases and preferences, we are deluged with propaganda urging us to abandon our irreducibly complex selves.
At the same time, scientists tell us we are 'simply' the products of evolution, nothing more than our genes. Brain scanners have inspired neuroscientists to claim they are close to cracking the problem of the human mind. 'Human equivalent' computers are being designed that, we are told, will do our thinking for us. Humans are being simplified out of existence.
It is time, says Bryan Appleyard, to resist, and to reclaim the full depth of human experience. We are, he argues, naturally complex creatures, we are only ever at home in complexity. Through art and literature we see ourselves in ways that machines never can. He makes an impassioned plea for the voices of art to be heard before those of the technocrats. Part memoir, part reportage, part cultural analysis, THE BRAIN IS WIDER THAN THE SKY is a dire warning about what we may become and a lyrical evocation of what humans can be. For the brain is indeed wider than the sky.
Reviews / Votes
As readers have come to expect from Bryan Appleyard, his new book is another literate and sensitive reflection on how science is changing our self-understanding * Literary Review * An acerbic expose of the empty promise of the computer age * Sunday Times * A beautifully written defence of human complexity in the face of the corporate mechanisation of our lives. If you are frustrated by automated queuing, this is one for you * Sunday Telegraph Magazine * Appleyard is scientifically literate, vigorous and intelligent...Appleyard's meditation is essential reading * Observer * Bryan Appleyard is our foremost guide to understanding contemporary culture. This exploration of what it means to be human today grips the reader from the first page -- John Gray There are great science writers and there are great arts writers - and then there's Bryan Appleyard. He's both -- John Humphrys Bryan Appleyard is that rarest of rare birds, a journalist who can mine factual subjects for their poetic resonance right across the spectrum. He is our main man for this kind of writing -- Clive James Appleyard is a gifted writer, able to explain both the beauty of a Hockney drawing and the mathematical unit used to measure how many computations processors like our brains are capable of performing...it's always fascinating, and always clearly expressed * New Statesman * One of the most interesting, curious, cultured and trenchant writers on this planet -- Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan An admirably sceptical guide, with a superb journalist's eye for detail, Appleyard makes an engaging prophet * Sunday Times * A sagacious and timely riposte to contemporary thinking * The Lady * With a scientific and philosophical approach Appleyard's polemic - to listen to the voices of art rather than technocrats - is intelligent and convincing * Big Issue in the North *More details
Edition
Digital original
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Orion Publishing Co
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
Digital original
File size
2,96 MB
ISBN-13
978-0-297-86031-0 (9780297860310)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
09/2012
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
€14.00
Shipment within 3-4 weeks
Book
11/2011
Weidenfeld & Nicolson
€44.80
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Person
Bryan Appleyard was educated at Bolton School and King's College, Cambridge. He was Financial News Editor and Deputy Arts Editor at The Times until 1984. He has subsequently written for many publications including the Sunday Times, the New York Times, Vanity Fair, the Spectator and the New Statesman. He has been Feature Writer of the Year three times at the British Press Awards and Interviewer of the Year once. In the 2019 Birthday Honours list he was appointed Commander of the British Empire for services to the arts and journalism.
