Is Technology Shrinking Our Brains?
In the world of anthropology, we’ve long known that the human brain has been, and still is, getting smaller. It’s been going on for thousands of years. There are several theories as to why, but we’ve no defined answer yet. One theory is because of technology.
Being a technology/digital anthropologist, my curiosity on this tends towards the theory that it’s due to technology. I think it holds weight, so let’s explore.
When Our Brains Started Shrinking
First it’s a good idea to look at when this all started to happen and some of the things going in the world at the time. Then we can look at future implications and explore the role of technology and what I call the theory of Cognitive Sideloading
What research is showing is that our brains seem to have started shrinking somewhere around 100,000 years ago. A time that we shared the planet with some other hominids that were ambling about on two feet. Neanderthals and Denisovans and perhaps a few others we’ve not yet and may never, discover.
Our brains grew rather bigger than our ancestors, chimpanzees and bonobos. We share more DNA with bonobos, which some suggest is why we’re less aggressive than chimps. Bonobos like to use orgies to settle disputes rather than knock each other about. The original free love…
