TeacherScribe

Now this is fascinating.

The power of the human brain. We can brag up all of our technology, but remember this: what devised all of that wonderfully powerful technology in the first place?

And no, don’t listen to those conspiracy theorists - like Chariots of the Gods and the like - that believe aliens gave us advanced technology.

This reports seems to contradict what I read in one of Ken Robinson's books about a young boy who was completely blind in one, though doctors repeatedly checked it, and it appeared to be totally healthy. There was no reason it should not work. However, in doing some research, it was discovered that as an infant, the boy had had to wear a patch over the eye for a period of time.

It seems that as the brain was developing it realized that the eye was useless and put the neural connections to other uses, thus rendering the eye useless.

Whenever I read reports like the one above, I'm reminded of a quote from James Burke

I’m reminded of James Burke’s quote on the human brain and all that it can accomplish -

“Every healthy human being has about the same number of neurons in the skull - about 100 billion. Each one of them has up to 50,000 connecting dendrites, each of which can be in contact with other connecting dendrites up to the same number, which means that inside the brain a thought can go any one of a number of routes which are larger than the number of atoms in the known universe! And everyone has one.”

I think Burke's words are an inspiration. And a frustration, for it never ceases to anger me at how young people willingly squander all of the power of their brains on such things as drugs, alcohol, drama, text messages, and McDonalds.