hemispheres

Revenge of the Right Brain

The above is a link to a wonderful Wired article explaining why the Information Age is now ending and what the author calls the Conceptual Age just begining. The long and short of it is that all the so-called left brain tasks, the brute force calculating tasks upon which the Information Age is founded, are no longer the most important. Just as factory work is no longer the pack-horse of our time, as it was in the Industrial Age, so now basic programing and research and other left brain tasks are getting pushed to the side, to become something supporting the primary work, the right brained creative work. The article explains very well why this is so, and I won't go into it here.

Instead, I'm going to go into my general annoyance with the terms "left brain" and "right brain." Don't get me wrong: I loved the above article, and I do recognize that the two hemispheres serve different functions, anbd that some people are generally stronger on one side than the other. What I really disagree with is the idea that some tasks are "left brained" while others are "right brained."

Traditionally, math and science are the traditionally "left brained" subjects in school. Traditionally, we think of them as requiring more brute force than empathy and creativity. What the article touches on but doesn't really say strongly is that, quite frankly, if you're good at math or science, you're using your right hemisphere just as much as your left! Now, I don't have any scientific evidence for that. Prove me wrong, go ahead. But the fact is that both math and science are truly creative subjects. You cannot possibly solve a problem without first a) having a deeper, "empathic" understanding of the subject material (understanding not just what and how, but why) and b) employing all your creative ability to decide how to solve it. Some math is brute-force left brain, I won't deny it. But that's the stuff that I don't see much point in spending school time on. Learn it, move on. Brute force is not useful. Creativity is.

The same applies to science, just for the record. Memorization and decision making, quintessentially left brained ideas, are not enough. You can't set up a good experiment or draw useful conclusions without heavy right brain work. And what about beauty? Is there not aesthetic work involved in both the creation of models and the presentation of your ideas? A great teacher of mine once said that science is 20% creativity, 10% hard science work, and 70% knowing how to get your message accross. Sound right brained to anyone else?

Now, I've digressed a little. The thing that started all this off was about the coming Conceptual Age. The author of that article tosses in at the end that left brained people will always be useful, and that those skills are never going to be at all unnecessary. The fact is, though, that brute force left brained tasks are being taken out of our hands, and right brained, creative, empathic, beauty-oriented tasks are being left to us. I'm waiting, praying, for the day when teachers and students realize that math and science and the other "left brained" activities involve creativity, empathy, and beauty, and that it's only by using those skills that we'll be able to succeed in the new age.

Oh, and by the way! For all who don't know, I submitted "oh time thy pyramids" to the UC Santa Barbara College of Creative Studies composition competition a few months back, and have won 2nd place! (Waldenites, Michael Rosen took 3rd with his "ffantasmagoria"!)

That's all for today, I think. Mythopoeia...

-lelandpaul