This Website is a Brain

So that I don't lose you from the start, let me point out something about the title of this article. You are reading this on a site that contains vast amounts of information that can be utilized for consideration or action. In general, I could be referring to any similar body of material to demonstrate my point.

The human brain is an incredible device. Our own brains can detect the smallest changes in light, sound and scent. Our brains coordinate the activity of an amazing number of muscles, bones, organs and nerves. Our own brains are capable of expanding their programming by examining experience. Some brains are different from human brains. Worm brains can also expand programming by examining experience, but they are less complex than human brains. One feature that is common to all brains is that of information storage which is crucial. Without the storage of information, the body-brain combination would have nothing to draw on for immediate action.

Have you ever wished you could add more quickly-accessible storage capacity to your brain? I mean, sure, we technical have information stored that we don't immediately recall. Sometimes a sound or smell will bring it to the forefront. Sometimes just trying to remember the name of our first grade teacher will bring the information up. Other times it takes hypnosis or pharmaceutical influence to draw forth information. I've heard people say that they wish they could add a computer memory stick to their own heads! I think that what they usually mean is that they don't remember things as easily as they would like, or sometimes not at all. Things make it into short-term memory but don't stick around for the long term. Have you ever crammed for an exam a little too early or too fast, only to forget it when the time for the test arrives? Bits of information like the name of that first grade teacher will sometimes be retained in long-term memory but aren't easily recalled for use.

Most of us realize from a fairly early age that there is a simple way to keep information readily available if we will need it soon. If you are in class and listening to a teacher, you may take notes so that you can recall the information later on. If you need to go shopping later, you might make a shopping list. If you plan to write a paper on a complex topic, you aren't likely to go to the library and try to memorize all the books on that subject. You are more likely to check those books out and keep them at hand while writing that paper.

Many organisms rely greatly on genetic information to survive. Human behavior is still vastly influenced by genetic information that is hard-wired into our nervous systems. But, we have the option to advance our knowledge and intelligence much more in a relatively short time period. To further enhance this ability, we have invented not just internally-learned brain experience but external information-brains: information that is not stored inside our heads but outside of us where it can be readily accessed and even shared with others! This invention lends itself to many forms. We can audibly record information, but even the crude technology to do this on wax or a metallic surface wasn't available until modern time. We can visually record information with optical imagery and that technology also wasn't available until modern times. The technology for producing images in motion certainly wasn't available until even later. These venues are all quite suitable for information storage and they have various advantages and disadvantages for the person who wants to tap in.

Written language is arguably the oldest invention that allows us to create "external brains" to delve into for immediate information. Scholars do not agree on the exact dates and forms, but there is little doubt that writing of some kind originated in ancient times. There have been discoveries of carvings in tortoise shells that may date back to around 6000 BC. Regardless of the exact dates and formats, human beings have used some sort of external record to augment brain capacity and immediacy information availability for a very long time. One might thing that as technology advanced, the use of text as an "external brain" would have died out and newer forms (like those mentioned above) might have taken the place of these ancient techniques. On the contrary, though, from the shopping list to the enormous Oxford English Dictionary - text has continued as a primary method of information retention and retrieval.

Instead of ancient forms dying out, they've instead changed with the times to make information even more available to more people - and faster. Prior to the invention of the printing press in the medieval era, people were recording all sorts of things with handwriting. Entire books were often handwritten and then laboriously copied by hand to offer duplicate copies. Sermons, philosophical treatises, wild theories, fiction and more were put to paper so people could rely on extrasomatic "written brains" to add to their knowledge and further their survival skills and quality of life. Of course, as the printing press made it possible to make multiple copies of text and even pictures with greater ease, an information-access boom ensued.

Today we use the technology available to us to increase this option even more. An average elementary-school student now has relatively easy access to information in hundreds of languages and on a countless number of topics. Can't quite pull the name of the third president out of your own brain? Google the question and find out instantly. Of course, the internet is only good for this kind of encyclopedic knowledge or the ravings of others - it isn't good for personal recall is it? Well- wait a minute... The other day I couldn't remember the year that I took a college course in basic Solaris. I'm sure it was in my head somewhere, but I needed it at the moment. In a matter of seconds I opened "My Documents" and located a resume' I'd styled to apply for a technical job and the information was waiting for me there. If I hadn't kept that, my university has a website where I can obtain detailed transcripts online by jumping through just a few more hoops. What if it was even more personal? Where did I go on vacation in 2003? Easy- a quick search of my email archives with the word "vacation" and I turned up several emails I'd sent to family members with photos of my vacation. Not only did I have the exact dates I'd sent the emails, but I had a visual record of the vacation. Which brings me to another interesting thing to note about what we've developed here.

Regular print books are still a fantastic resource. I also have documentaries on DVD that I use for reference, and CD's with unabridged audio books on them. The books can provide me with text and visuals of information. The DVD can give me details in motion. The CD can allow me to pour the information I need back into my ears. My own brain, however, readily produces information for me in such a variety of formats. I can visualize actual words as though they were on paper. I can think about a photograph of my grandmother and my brain displays it for me. I can try to recall the dream I had last night and it is replayed for me in living color. While I don't even begin to claim that computers or the internet itself can do any of this with the purity and complexity of the brain - it does indeed record and re-display information for me in all of these formats. Does that make it superior to other forms, like novels? In my humble opinion, definitely not. Each format that we've invented continues to have its own pros and cons and I would be loath to trade all the books in my home for the best computer with the most advanced display and the fastest internet connection in the world.

Still, in a very simple form- this website is a brain of a sort. We can get excited about the opportunity to find information (accurate or not, which is another subject) or we can worry about what all this access will mean for the future. Either way, it's here and it is a part of human evolution.