Future of Engineering

There was a time, some years back, when a few distinguished folks in the scientist community thought that computers might indeed start thinking on their own. Things have gone relatively quiet on this front since then, though even today you hear the occasional noises. But, while artificial intelligence is an oxymoron - or at best an overhyped promise - in many scientists' opinion, there is little doubt that today's computers and computing infrastructure can perform things that would have been considered pure magic even a few decades back

Recent attempts at making computers emulate human beings in thought, such as the Blue Brain project, have also met with reasonable success. To some around the world, this growth in computing power and sophistication is a cause of concern - "will they take over human beings?". To some others, it is a cause of celebration - "sciece has won after all

But relatively few of them are asking the question "If computers are superior to our brains in some aspects, can our brains be used for far more enriching work?" Once we recall the fact that our brain is not just one whole, but that there are compartments in it that do different things (differently), then our perspective is likely to change. To make things simpler and more logical, it is better to consider the brain's two main compartments - the right hemisphere and the left hemisphere.

Although popularized in the 1980s by the artist Betty Edwards in her book “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain,” the right-brain-left-brain dichotomy originated with the research of the American biologist Roger W. Sperry in the 1960s. Through studying “split brain” animals and human patients, whose brain hemispheres had been disconnected, he found that each side of the brain plays its own role in cognition.

With its 100 billion cells forging 1 quadrillion connections, the human brain is breathtakingly complex. In the last 10 years however, thanks in part to advances in functional magnetic resonance imaging, researchers have begun to identify more precisely how the two sides divide responsibilities.

The left side, home of the human language center, is the outspoken logical, linear half of the equation. Our left hemisphere thinks linearly and methodically. It's that calculating intelligence that reminds me when I have to do my laundry. But perhaps most important, it's that little voice that says to me, "I am. I am."

The right side, home to spatial perception and nonverbal concepts, is the nonlinear, high-concept source of the imagination and of pleasure. Our right hemisphere is all about right here right now. It thinks in pictures and it learns kinesthetically through the movement of our bodies. It explores what this present moment looks like, what this present moment smells like and tastes like, feels and sounds like

The two hemispheres constantly send signals back and forth through a bundle of 200 million to 300 million nerve fibers to help balance learning, analysis and communication throughout the brain.

(Here is an easy-to-understand comparison of the right and left brain roles & functions).

Humans have benefitted from both these roles over their entire evolution, though individuals have always had preferential consumption of each - some were more left-brained (your typical computer-geek, for instance), and some were more right-brained (that creative painter down your alley). Some, like Da Vinci (or Einstein), had used both hemispheres well

Using the right side of my brain I can take my dreams, I can connect them to my reality, and I can make my dreams come true. But my right needs the left - to make my dreams become a reality, I need to process my thoughts, and work on them logically. Thus, the right and left brains have been working in a symbiotic fashion for long. In the 20th century however, the left counterpart started getting a lot more attention and came to be much more valued than the left.

The key ability of our right brain, the ability to help us see from an artist’s perspective, and the alternative way of thinking that this engenders have traditionally been marginalized in the business and corporate world of the 20th century. Until recently, the abilities that led to success in school, work, and business were characteristic of the left hemisphere. They were the sorts of linear, logical, analytical talents measured by SATs and deployed by CPAs. Our educational systems, as well as science in general, tends to neglect the nonverbal form of intellect. What it comes down to is that modern society discriminates against the right hemisphere.

But now computers can emulate many of the sequential skills of the left hemisphere - it is, at the end of the day, a part that can only see the individual trees in a forest, and machines can do this admirably well. In addition, much of the left-brain-centric work that the information workers of the western world once did — computer programming, financial accounting, routing calls — is now done more cheaply in Asia and elsewhere. To paraphrase a popular saying, "If it can be outsourced or automated, it probably has been. If it has not been, the day is not far off when it will be."

In a world upended by outsourcing, deluged with data, and choked with choices, the abilities that matter most are now closer in spirit to the specialties of the right hemisphere - artistry, imagination, empathy, seeing the big picture, and pursuing the transcendent. This situation has led many to argue that it’s time for our imaginative right brain to take center stage.

No, there is not yet an organization named "Right Brain, the Right Way". No, there is no slogan yet on everyone's lips that reads "It's the Right Brain, Stupid". But yes, there are a number of small efforts underway to make people worldwide realise that the poor cousin is actually the rich cousin of the future.

So you should not be surprised that business executives are turning to the original pop culture icon of right-brain thinking, “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain,” for guidance into their right minds. You should not be surprised either if a couple of years down the line your left brain subtly reminds you that you had started ignoring it of late

Dr. Sperry summarised it best when he accepted the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1981 for his discoveries concerning the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres. “The great pleasure and feeling in my right brain,” he said, “is more than my left brain can find the words to tell you."

In future, if people start firing up their right brains, our human race stops being a bunch of androids and we become an imaginative race once again, you know to whom the most credit should go - computers.

Labels: Computer-Science, Society

PermaLink - Not Using Our Right Brain is Just Not Right posted by Ecacofonix : 7:13 AM