The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind

The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind by Michio Kaku"The Future of the Mind" is a fascinating book on the future of the mind. Best-selling author, popular science personality on TV, and theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku provides the public with a popular-science treat. What sets Kaku apart is the combination of his prodigious knowledge and innate ability to convey such complex topics in an engaging conversational tone. This captivating 400-page book includes fifteen chapters and is broken out into the following three parts (books): I. The Mind and Consciousness, II. Mind Over Matter, and III. Altered Consciousness.Positives:1. A treat to read. Popular science at its best.2. The fascinating topic of neuroscience in the masterful hands of Dr. Michio Kaku.3. Kaku is a theoretical physicist but is so well connected in the science community that is able to share great insights from some of the best minds. It's the future of the mind from the physicist's perspective.4. Great use of popular culture that connects with the audience. Kaku's mastery of the topic and the ease with which he conveys such complex topics justifies his popularity.5. The book is logically broken out into three main parts. The first part surveys the history of the brain. The second explores the new technology developed to study the brain; and the third part investigates alternate forms of consciousness.6. Presents landmark studies in neuroscience that shows how damaging specific parts of the brain causes behavioral problems. Throughout the book, Kaku presents an idea or a concept and follows it up with great examples and references to leading scientists in the field.7. Love how the book explains the structure of the brain; from the reptilian, mammalian to the cerebral cortex.8. Explanation of consciousness and the levels of consciousness. "Human consciousness is a specific form of consciousness that creates a model of the world and then simulates it in time, by evaluating the past to simulate the future. This requires mediating and evaluating many feedback loops in order to make a decision to achieve a goal."9. The accomplishments of DARPA. So much for government failure. "DARPA has been a key player in a series of inventions that have altered the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including cell phones, night-vision goggles, telecommunications advances, and weather satellites." And of course, the precursor to the Internet, Arpanet.10. How memories are stored. "So far, scientists have identified more than twenty categories of memories that are stored in different parts of the brain, including fruits and vegetables, plants, animals, body parts, colors, numbers, letters, nouns, verbs, proper names, faces, facial expressions, and various emotions and sounds."11. Thought provoking questions throughout the book. "Is genius a function of our genes, or is it more a question of personal struggle and achievement?" Einstein as a case study.12. An interesting look at the nature of dreams.13. Debunks popular myths popularized by movies. "On the contrary, people under the influence of sodium pentathol, like those who have imbibed a few too many, are fully capable of lying."14. Fascinating look at altered states of consciousness. "Dr. V. S. Ramachandran estimates that 30 to 40 percent of all the temporal lobe epileptics whom he has seen suffer from hyperreligiosity."15. Mental illness. "Scientists from the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed sixty thousand people worldwide and found that there was a genetic link between five major mental illnesses: schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, major depression, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Together they represent a significant fraction of all mentally ill patients."16. The intriguing topic of robots and consciousness. Stimulating discussion.17. The quest to build a brain; the three approaches to the brain.18. Is there a more interesting topic than out-of-body and near-death experiences? "Dr. Olaf Blanke and his colleagues in Switzerland may have located the precise place in the brain that generates out-of-body experiences."19. So what is aging? "Basically, aging is the buildup of errors, at the genetic and cellular level." Thank you.20. Concludes with an interesting section on philosophy and neuroscience. "We are just wetware, running software called the mind, nothing more or less. Our thoughts, desires, hopes, and aspirations can be reduced to electrical impulses circulating in some region of the prefrontal cortex. That is the Copernican Principle applied to the mind."21. Excellent supplemental material: suggested reading material, notes and an appendix on the question of quantum consciousness.Negatives:1. Oversells science. I love Dr. Kaku and his enthusiasm for science, one which I share, but sometimes I wonder if such passion leads him to overvalue what science can reasonably accomplish. Too optimistic. "One day, perhaps sometime in the next century, we will be able to transmit the consciousness of our brains throughout the solar system by placing our entire connectomes onto powerful laser beams."2. Since the book's focus is on the future; it spends a lot of time in areas of speculation or what many may consider science fiction.3. A summary of what future technologies of the mind are most likely to occur.4. More visual material would have added value. Timelines, graphs, diagrams...5. What is a soul? What characteristics does a soul possess that would enable you to empirically define it let alone define how it works?In summary, this book exemplifies why I love science so much. Dr. Kaku inspires us to dream while keeping our feet on the ground. This is what a popular-science book should be all about. Dr. Kaku shares what we currently know and speculates what is in store for the future of the mind. Perhaps too optimistic but this book is about inspiring young minds to pursue one of the greatest quests in all of science. I highly recommend it!Further recommendations: " Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100 " by the same author, " How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed " and "The Singularity is Near" by Ray Kurzwell, " Who's in Charge?: Free Will and the Science of the Brain " by Michael S. Gazzaniga, " The Human Brain Book " by Rita Carter, " Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain " by David Eagleman, " The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human " by V.S. Ramachandran, " Hallucinations " and "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat" by Oliver Sacks, " A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future " by Daniel H. Pink, " In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind " by Eric R. Kandel, " Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain " by Antonio Damasio, and "The Mind" edited by John Brockman.

This is an excellent overview of just about anything that has anything to do with brains -- it covers the history of brain research -- actually mentions the case of Phineas Gage who, inadvertently kick-started the study of the various parts of the brain. He discusses the mental abilities of those we know to have been smart -- Einstein, Niels Bohr and others. He compares animal behavior with human, discusses how the brain develops, compares our brains with computers, and also discusses the possibility of things like telekinesis and brains that are made out of pure energy. He does cast his net wide -- I can't even recall all the things he touches on, but it's sure to have something for just about anyone with an interest in the subject.What I liked the most was that it was thought-provoking. I found myself looking up something or other in one book or another or searching online, and doing it very often.I have long been interested in the comparison of brain and computer and he discusses this at length. There are a couple of very large research programs that are going to try to understand the brain. Personally, I don't quite trust those large, let's-figure-out-everything research programs: we're ignorant enough about the brain as it is. It seems to me that they would be better off trying to start with something more simple -- maybe the visual system, or just modeling a chunk of general-purpose neural tissue. But I'm sure they'll come up with something new -- and miss most of all that's in there. The same thing happened when the Human Genome Project ignored the so-called "junk DNA" -- something that others are now looking into more closely.There are many things I wish he would have discussed in more detail -- but that could lead to an encyclopedia (or two or three) and not a book that can be carried around or read in a timely fashion.I was very happy to read the last page of the book, where he says that transistors are not like our neurons: neurons use both digital and analog processes to work their magic. Computers clearly have many advantages over us: roughly a million times the switching speed; digital memories, which are more reliable; and we can build and repair them when needs be. Would that we could do better with our own brains (though that too is being worked on all the time). Computers complement us very well, doing some things much better than we. But we still excel in many ways. We have associative memory -- the ability to hear a word or see a picture or hear a sound -- and have many memories of similar, associated memories come flooding out. I wouldn't want to do without DVDs to remember every pixel in a movie; but it's a lot more fun having an associative brain to watch and enjoy that movie with its ability to recognize names, actors, etc. and compare what I'm experiencing now with what I did before.Overall, it's a great book -- the kind I will look at again and again.

I liked the detailed explanation of the functioning of the brain. Journey through various possibilities of mind control and thought transfer are very interesting.Book will be of interest to all fans of science as well futurologists.

Although slightly longer (about 340 pages) than some of Kaku's other books, this book is probably one of his easier books to comprehend. Kaku does an excellent job in explaining scientific principles so that even the lay person should be able to follow the gist of what Kaku is trying to say within the book. Having said this, a background in science, especially neuroscience, would help the reader to gain a deeper understanding of this book. The book focuses upon how technological innovation over the course of the next century will lead to an enhancement of the human brain. Augmented humans will be able to communicate with each other telepathically, use telekinesis, manipulate avatars, upload dreams / memories, raise their I.Q., induce O.B.E's and become immortal. Other themes explored within the book include mapping the human brain, treating mental illness, allowing the disabled to walk again, mind control, hypnosis, allowing society's rulers to create a pliant population, A.I, robots, cyborgs, space travel and aliens. Kaku explores these ideas with reference to sci-fi books / films; he often provides a brief synposis of them just in case you've never seen the films or read the books. This clearly aids the reader's comprehension of the themes that the writer explores within the book. If you've read any of Kaku's other books then you'll know he often delves deeply into quantum mechanics, relativity and string theory. He does explore this area of physics within this book, predominantly in the last chapter, but it is a short chapter. A blessing for some perhaps, considering its complex subject matter, but I felt personally this chapter could have been a bit longer. Overall, an informative and enjoyable read.

War sehr leicht zu verdauen. Keine spezifische Fachbegriffe nötig um gut verstehen zu können um was es in diesem Buch geht. Ein Interesse an übersinnlichen Fähigkeiten wird gestillt. Ist im Ganzen sehr vielseitig und beschränkt sich nicht auf ein zentrales Thema. In meinem Fall habe ich es gekauft, weil ich sehr lesefaul bin :/ jedoch ist es für ein gutes Englisch ein muss sich Bücher zu kaufen und diese zu lesen. So lern man am schnellsten und effektivsten. Kann schon vorkommen das man einzelne Wörter im Lexikon nach schlagen muss aber war bei mir eher selten. Macht Spaß zum Lesen und kann weiter empfehlt werden.

Excellent book. Well written and easy to understand.

The Future of the Mind is really about the future of different theories, studies and technologies dealing directly or in some way with the human brain. This book is a must read if you want to be aware of what’s already happening in Neuroscience and the possibilities ahead.Although for many this book may sound like to sci-fi, many of the crazy sounding ideas are already technologies being developed in some laboratory around the world. What would you think if someone told you it is actually possible to record your dreams in video? What about connecting someone’s brain to someone else’s, in the same fashion we connect computers? Well, it’s actually being done, although in very simple ways – after all, they’re all works in progress. This idea was mentioned, decades ago, in a fiction book called Brainetic, by Ennio Pedroso, and I was thrilled to know this may actually be possible in a not so distant future.Dr Kaku also mentions the advances made in connecting a disabled person’s brain to an exoskeleton and what this kind of technology means to thousands of people around the world, who will be able to walk by themselves without the aid of a wheelchair.I highly recommend this outstanding book to everyone interested in science and in what we’ll be seeing as ready to go technology in the not so distant future.