Book Review

11级2班11030142013

马晓园

Book Review

The subject of download is very familiar to us. But are you familiar with the subject of our brains’ downloading skills? With the development of science and technology, it’s no strange that Ted Thornhill deals w ith this subject in his essay, ” ”Downloading” New Skills into Our Brains”. In his essay, he mentions that it may probably be possible to download new skills into our brains without any medication. This matter is very important for us because we can’t be b other to waste time learning any skills. The achievement of this subject only needs a computer. With simple and clear words, I think it is worth reading and studying.

In this essay, Thornhill tells us the downloaded skills and our brains can interact with each other and with certain process, we can download and upload skills into our brains. He strongly supports his idea with potent experiments: scientists believe that we can acquire knowledge simply with a computer screen and waiting for it to upload. Besides, they study how to use a functional magnetic resonance machine to change brain activity pattern. The lead author of the study Takeo Watanabe said that adult early visual areas are sufficiently plastic to cause visual perceptual learning. They knew their research had worked because lots of FMRI volunteers all underwent visual skills test and these volunteers had far better scores than people not being given the treatment. Although the success of this matter is without medication, it still needs some tools such as computers and functional magnetic resonance machine. And of course, these tools are within reach and do no harm to our health. All of these showa promising future for our brains’ downloading new skills.

In his essay, he also quoted the film of” The Matrix trilogy”. The film went a step further than Thornhill’s idea of our brains’ downloading function. In the film, the characters learn new skills by having a computer physically plugged into their brains and new skills directly uploaded. He claims our hope for the achievement of his subject to upload and download new skills into our brains.

The only weakness of this essay is the length of the essay. It’s so short that it can’t provide enough proof or experiments to support the author’s idea. However, I think in spite of its shortness, I can spread my thoughts about the subject. Also, I’m not patient to read and study a relatively long essay, so I can have a better understanding of this essay and maintain my interest.

Thornhill’s choice of the subject for this essay is very appropriate. With the development of science and technology, this subject is becoming more and more heating. In turn, this will develop our science and technology better. Thornhill believes learning new skills without even being awake is set to become a reality. Another appropriateness of Thornill is the effectiveness of the language. This essay is a prediction of our development of technology. There isn’t any exact words to show his idea. His words are not very precise but in a strong belief. Thus, this essay shows truth to readers.

In conclusion, regardless of the short length of this essay, I can’t deny that it was worth reading.