Quick, how much of our brain do we use? Ten percent, right? Wrong! Though conventional wisdom may not give it proper credit, our noggin uses every neuron to reconcile a prodigious amount of information. Our ever-considerate brain does so much without nagging that we often take its efforts for granted.
"Mind Hacks," a new book by Tom Stafford and Matt Webb, aims to give the brain its due. The authors assembled 100 tips and tricks spanning vision, motor skills, attention, cognition, and subliminal perception to help readers appreciate the ol' gray matter a little more consciously--and entertain friends at cocktail parties to boot. Hacks include: -Create Illusionary Depth with Sunglasses, Hack #24 Make a pendulum out of a piece of string and something heavy, like a bunch of keys. Ask a friend to swing the pendulum in front of you in a perpendicular plane, and make sure it's going exactly in a straight line, left to right. Cover one of your eyes with the shades (this is easiest if you have old sunglasses and can poke one of the lenses out). Keep both eyes open! You'll see that the pendulum now seems to be swinging back and forth as well as side to side, so that it appears to move in an ellipse. -Hear with Your Eyes, Hack #59 Watch Arnt Maaso's McGurk Effect video (http://www.media.uio.no/personer/arntm/McGurk_english.html; QuickTime with sound). When you play it with your eyes closed, the voice says "ba ba." Play the video again, and watch the mouth: the voice says "da da." Try to hear "ba ba" while you watch the lips move. It can't be done. You can flip through "Mind Hacks" at random to experiment with each hack individually, making it an ideal addition to a geek's coffee table, teenager's bookshelf, or just about anyone's nightstand (you'll only need a pen to Make Yourself Happy, Hack #95). Like most brains, "Mind Hacks" is not just fun and games--it has a serious side, too. The authors cite web sites, books, and academic papers so readers can probe other interesting resources. "Some of the hacks in this collection document the neat tricks the brain has used to get the job done, " note Webb and Stafford in the book's preface. "Other hacks point to quirks of our own minds that we can exploit in unexpected ways." For those looking for a more sophisticated way to explore the mind-body connection than feeling the room spinning after a night of debauchery, "Mind Hacks" is just the ticket. As Steven Johnson, author of "Mind Wide Open," notes in the book's forward, "May it mess with your head in all the right ways." To order your copy or for more information, see: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mindhks/ or call 1-800-998-9938 or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mind Hacks Tom Stafford, Matt Webb Publisher: O'Reilly ISBN: 0-596-00779-5, 394 pages, $24.95 US, $36.95 CA http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/mindhks/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- If you want to cancel a subscription to this newsletter, or add subscriptions to other topics, go to http://www.oreillynet.com/cs/user/home For non-automated human help email [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----------------------------------------------------------------
