Adventures among Ants: A Global Safari with a Cast of Trillions
by Mark W. Moffett. University of California Press, 2010
Join biologist and photographer Mark W. Moffet of the Smithsonian Institution—who has been called the “Indiana Jones of entomology”—as he journeys to the Amazon, Nigeria, Borneo and beyond to uncover the secret lives of ants.
EXCERPT
Pandora’s Seed: The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization
by Spencer Wells. Random House, 2010
Around 10,000 years ago humans invented agriculture, shedding the hunter-gatherer lifestyle for one in which they created their own food. This innovation, argues anthropologist and geneticist Spencer Wells, set into motion a chain of events that would ultimately lead to our present era of overpopulation, infectious disease and anxiety—a mismatch between culture and biology. Below he describes modern-day stresses and their impact on our still fundamentally hunter-gatherer minds.
“Cars rush by outside your window, a horn blaring occasionally. The refrigerator hums in the corner of the kitchen, and the heat coming out of a duct over your head whooshes softly. Bills sit stacked on the counter, insistently waiting to be opened. A television—perhaps one of several in the house—blares advertisements from the next room, and Internet pop-up ads interrupt your attempts to check on your retirement investments. The cacophony reaches a crescendo when your spouse’s cell phone rings, vibrating along the tabletop like some sort of angry digital dervish. The blare of the outside world goes on all around us, even while we attempt to focus on our ‘real’ lives.
“We are constantly surrounded by surreptitious stimuli—so much so that we take it all for granted. We are used to the notion that advertisements saturate our lives—exposure estimates for the average American range from several hundred to several thousand every day—as promoters try to sell us everything from life insurance to an enhanced sex life. Data flows at us from every direction. Information is ubiquitous and, with the rise of the Internet and broadband connectivity, more easily accessible than ever. But even things we might not think of as intrusive bombard our subconsciousnesses with stimuli. Inadvertently, the machines we have created to improve our lives may actually be causing some degree of psychological harm....
“Our lives are now lived in a state that could be called ‘stream of subconsciousness,’ as we subliminally lurch from one unrelated (and usually unwanted) stimulus to the next like floating dust particles buffeted by the random forces of air currents. Some people seem to thrive on constant overstimulation ... but most of us react rather badly to it.”
BOOKS
How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like
by Paul Bloom. W. W. Norton, 2010
The Matchbox That Ate a Forty-Ton Truck: What Everyday Things Tell Us about the Universe
by Marcus Chown. Faber and Faber, 2010
The Evolution of Childhood: Relationships, Emotion, Mind
by Melvin Konner. Belknap Press, 2010
Bonobo Handshake: A Memoir of Love and Adventure in the Congo
by Vanessa Woods. Gotham, 2010
The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
by Matt Ridley. Harper, 2010
Unhinged: The Trouble with Psychiatry
by Daniel Carlat. Free Press, 2010
Barnum Brown: The Man Who Discovered Tyrannosaurus rex
by Lowell Dingus and Mark Norell. University of California Press, 2010
See what we're tweeting about
3 Comments
Add CommentFor the vast majority of people and situations, multitasking seems to be a very inefficient use of one's mental resources even when those people believe themselves to be working more efficiently.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn fact, those who fail to also practice more contemplative modes of concentration (and of course those who fail to get quality sleep) may suffer from a diminished ability to do so when the situation calls for it.
Some background information, for skimming or pondering, as your case may be:
http://www.google.com/search?q=multitasking+site:sciencedaily.com
Is this a zero-sum-game, or could we become better at both multitasking at a frantic pace and spending extended periods of time thinking quietly and deeply? I have yet to see a scientific paper supporting this possibility, but it would be a comforting thought.
Worst than that...it' mostly unreal junk and takes up too much time.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMore to the point, we don't "multitask" any more than a (single core) computer does. What we call "multitasking" actually involves dividing our attention among a number of tasks, then switching back and forth among them.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBesides being downright inefficient (think of all the overhead all that task-switching involves), it is also unhealthy for its practitioners. Suggested reading: "Type A behavior and Your Heart".