They said we only use 10% of our brains.
But why would we have evolved such a massive brain to use only a teeny bit of it? The neuro-people are now saying we use the whole lot of it. And we use both hemispheres for all tasks, whether they’re ‘creative’ or ‘logic’ tasks. The 10% thing is a myth. Even the simple task of putting on your socks fires up way more than 10% of your neurons.
That’s what a brain camera shows: bits of the brain light up to let us know they’re at work. But maybe that’s only half the story:
Another half story might be of the Russian composer Shostakovich, who had a metallic splinter in his brain — a shell fragment; and when he tilted his head to the side, he heard melodies — an infinite supply — all he had to do was write them down.
And by stimulating the brain with electricity, the neurologist Wilder Penfield had patients evoke ‘elaborate mental states’ — intense and vivid hallucinations that are not fantasies, but are actual memories. Mister Penfield reckoned the brain keeps a near perfect record of life’s stream of consciousness.
Experiences like Shostakovich’s and Penfield’s perhaps help to make invisible potential, visible…
And with more people deciding that the abundance of material stuff isn’t the whole story for our lives, a more connected, humany approach to the way we organise our societies might just tap into broader potentials of our brains…
… in the old way of doing things, the corporation came first. Sell masses of plastic to a mass market. One size fits all. That old way makes for jobs that make people into production-line parts.
The new way looks to be more about answering to human needs. Not just food and shelter, but creativity, sociability, connection. And when people not corporations come first, it’s not about one size fits all anymore. We’re not production-line robots. More of us have to think, interact, create.
So to fit that idea of a thinky interacty creaty society, maybe the best advertising and marketing is stuff that has us thinking, interacting, creating…
…for products that answer our needs, before the needs of a production line.
Perhaps our old society was holding us back; maybe now our societies are beginning to catch back up with the evolution of our brains.
Because when we engage more of our brain potential, we are more human.
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The Social 0.0 Lab videos found on Osocio.
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Some related blog posts:
➜ Is Neuromarketing good for us? And: old tricks and new dogs
➜ Could a Crow be a Copywriter? And how do you make luck?
➜ How technology can change writing
➜ Pepsi ‘Refresh’ campaign — How to See with Sound
➜ Why Western Economies Will Get Back on Their Feet and Why the World Might Not Be Screwed Yet
➜ Hey Look At Me. I’m a Copywriter!
