Do I Want My Brain in Physical Books, or e-Books?

Most of what I know isn’t in my head. It’s out there in my books. I know how to do a lot of integrals in calculus, for example. But, really, what I mean by that is that I know where my book of integrals is, and I know where in the book any particular method is. I know all that stuff in all those books in my house because I can find my way there.

Books in a bookshelf possess lots of visual cues, so I can quickly find my way to the right book — “Oh, it’s on the bottom left of the shelf by the window in the living room, just below that big blue art book.”

And once I find the book, when I open it up I can use visual cues within it to find my way to the right page. After all, it’s not as if I remember the page number. No, I remember roughly where it is in the book, roughly what the page looks like, and roughly what the surrounding pages might look like. Pages in a book might not initially seem to have a look, but they very often do. There are often figures, or tables, or unique and recognizable features to the way the paragraphs are aligned. These visuo-spatial cues guide me further and further along to the goal, the piece of my knowledge out there in my library.

Mess with my library and books, and you mess with my brain.

And, this is a good way to organize one’s “external brain” because it’s like real life and the way we navigate the world: We use visual cues to make our way to things, and so (personal) libraries and physical books harness these natural instincts.

This sort of “harnessing”, or “nature-harnessing”, is akin to more general harnessing that happens to our brains, taking old evolved human capabilities and transforming them into new modern powers, something that’s the topic of my earlier book, Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man.

For example, in my research and earlier book, The Vision Revolution, I have argued that writing itself has culturally evolved to have the visual structure found in natural scenes, and that’s why we can read at all — we can read because writing came to look like something we’re already brilliant at visually processing. So, when I get to the piece of information in my book in my personal library, that writing also harnesses our natural visual-object-recognition talents by looking like nature.

Libraries and books nature-harness us, from the navigation process the physical-library-filled-with-physical-books demands to the reading of the writing itself.

E-readers, on the other hand, dispense with this navigation process. Whether it’s e-readers or pretty much anything on the web, the way we get to the information isn’t by spatially navigating our way there, but, instead, by “beaming” directly there like in Star Trek. Just type in the coordinates — “Captain, beam me over to the methods of integration for inverse trigonometric forms!” — and you get transported directly to the information. Beamed directly to the book, and beamed (via an intra-book search) to the piece of information.

That kind of direct beaming sounds good at first, and maybe — just maybe — it is, but note that the information’s address doesn’t get nicely put in your brain, not in the way it does for my library. For my library, that information has a physical location, and I’m good at remembering where things are in the real, physical, world. But in let’s-beam-any-old-place-any-old-time world, the information comes with no address, and thus no easy way to organize it into my head.

Now, I say “maybe” above because I suspect that e-readers are harnessing us in some way that I have not wrapped my head around. That is, with vibrant technological advances, we often find that the technology is implicitly figuring out new ways of harnessing us; new ways of getting us to do things we’re brilliant at, but now those brilliant things amount to information-gathering rather than whatever those brilliant things originally were for. So, while I’m pointing out potentially unappreciated advantages to traditional books, I don’t actually know that they’re better than whatever e-readers are harnessing, and I suspect e-readers are doing harnessing of their own.

Mark Changizi is an evolutionary neurobiologist and Director of Human Cognition at 2AI Labs. He is the author of The Brain from 25000 Feet, The Vision Revolution, and his newest book, Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape to Man.

Image by Viacheslav Nikolaenko / Shutterstock

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Physical and Mental Effects of Abusing Sleeping Pills (Drugteststrips)

Sleeping pills act as sleeping aid for sleeping disorders, mainly insomnia and sleep apnea. Sleeping pills have some amount of hypnotic drug, which helps in creating a tranquilizing effect on the mind. Due to this, the mind of the person calms down, thus promoting sleep. They are always recommended by doctors in smaller dosages, for shorter periods, however chronic the problem may be. This is because, excess intake of sleeping pills exaggerate the problem further instead of curing it. Excess usage of sleeping tablets makes the individual get addicted to it leading to numerous and severe side effects on the body, sometimes proving to be fatal.

Symptoms of Addiction
A person suffering from sleeping pill addiction shows some symptoms, which are to be identified in order to provide timely medication. Regular consumption and overdose of sleeping tablets makes an individual addicted to it. They get into a situation of drug dependency, leading to severe restlessness on ceasing the intake of the drug. Some of the main symptoms shown by sleeping pill abusers are - deep and uncontrollable craving for drugs, dry mouth, drowsiness, headache, constipation, forgetfulness (on prolong usage may lead to severe amnesia also), anxiety, mood swings, loss of appetite, loss of weight, nausea, negative changes in personal behavior, poor performance at work, short temper, hallucinations, tremors and seizures, etc.

Physical Effects
Sleeping pills abuse causes many ill-effects on major parts of the body. Some of the physical side effects of sleeping pills abuse are:

Addiction: Sleeping pills have very less amount of drug which is used to bring a calming effect on the mind, thus helping the person to fall asleep. Consuming high amounts of pills at once, or continuously using these pills to get euphoric effect may lead to addiction. The abuser cannot think of any other way of curing his disorder - makes himself drug dependent. The major symptoms of drug addiction include uncontrollable desire to consume drug, anxiety, restlessness and uncontrolled anger on forcing to stop drug abuse.

Digestive troubles: Sleeping pills addiction causes many negative effects on digestive system, mainly being loss of appetite, diarrhea, acidity, etc. Due to the irregular sleeping timings, the eating habits and timings also change, leading to the problems in digestive system. Decreased appetite ultimately results in malnutrition, putting the abusers total health at risk.

Nausea: Nausea is seen as a common problem in most of the drug addicts of any kind. This is one of the effects on digestive system. It is sense of uneasiness and also an involuntary urge to vomit. Generally, after an overdose of pills and heavy sleep, the person suffers from the sensation of vomiting, as the stomach of individual is empty, due to loss of appetite.

Drowsiness: Overdose of sleeping pills cause drowsiness or hangovers. After the intake of sleeping pills, the individual suffers from the sleeping effects even during day times. He/she feels sleepy and drowsy all through the day leading to hangover, which results in loss of concentration, lack of coordination, poor performance at workplace, excess tiredness, loss of memory etc.

Constipation: Constipation is a result of poor diet, very common in sleeping pills abusers. Improper eating habits and taking less fluids may lead to constipation. This results in flatulence and laziness.

Emotional Effects
Sleeping pills drug abuse impacts the emotional status of abuser severely. Some of the common emotional effects are as follows:

Parasomnias: Parasomnia is a stage in which the individual does not have any control over his actions, such as walking, talking, eating, and driving in sleep. During this stage, the person has no knowledge of what he is doing.

Delirium: Excess dosage of sleeping tablets results in delirium. Delirium is having a confused state of mind, during which the person undergoes serious delusions, hallucinations, clouded thinking, day dreaming, etc.

Tremors and seizures: Tremors and seizures are mostly occurred after an overdose of sleeping pills. These are sudden and uncontrollable shaking of some of the body parts like legs, arms and fingers. Sometimes the whole body becomes numb and the abuser loses the sense of touch.

Daytime effects: After heavy dose of sleeping pills during night, the effect still continues during daytime too. The effects may be like feeling sleepy, drowsy, and tired, loss of memory, and loss of concentration.

Dependency: There are high chances of an individual being addicted to the sleeping pills, due to the tranquilizing effect they create. A person whenever feels like having a sleeping problem goes for these pills immediately without having a second thought, in order to get relieved. Thus, he becomes addicted and highly dependent on the drug, which causes many side effects and may also lead to death on forcing to stop its intake.

As seen above, addiction of sleeping pills has very dangerous effects on human body. One of the best ways to avoid the harmful effects of abusing sleeping pills is by detecting the symptoms in the early stages and providing medication. Delayed recognition of these symptoms may increase the severity of the problems leading to many physical and emotional side effects on the body and may even result in more dangerous and incurable consequences such as, heart attacks, nervous breakdowns or death.

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Physical and Mental Effects of Abusing Sleeping Pills (Drugteststrips)

Sleeping pills act as sleeping aid for sleeping disorders, mainly insomnia and sleep apnea. Sleeping pills have some amount of hypnotic drug, which helps in creating a tranquilizing effect on the mind. Due to this, the mind of the person calms down, thus promoting sleep. They are always recommended by doctors in smaller dosages, for shorter periods, however chronic the problem may be. This is because, excess intake of sleeping pills exaggerate the problem further instead of curing it. Excess usage of sleeping tablets makes the individual get addicted to it leading to numerous and severe side effects on the body, sometimes proving to be fatal.

Symptoms of Addiction
A person suffering from sleeping pill addiction shows some symptoms, which are to be identified in order to provide timely medication. Regular consumption and overdose of sleeping tablets makes an individual addicted to it. They get into a situation of drug dependency, leading to severe restlessness on ceasing the intake of the drug. Some of the main symptoms shown by sleeping pill abusers are - deep and uncontrollable craving for drugs, dry mouth, drowsiness, headache, constipation, forgetfulness (on prolong usage may lead to severe amnesia also), anxiety, mood swings, loss of appetite, loss of weight, nausea, negative changes in personal behavior, poor performance at work, short temper, hallucinations, tremors and seizures, etc.

Physical Effects
Sleeping pills abuse causes many ill-effects on major parts of the body. Some of the physical side effects of sleeping pills abuse are:

Addiction: Sleeping pills have very less amount of drug which is used to bring a calming effect on the mind, thus helping the person to fall asleep. Consuming high amounts of pills at once, or continuously using these pills to get euphoric effect may lead to addiction. The abuser cannot think of any other way of curing his disorder - makes himself drug dependent. The major symptoms of drug addiction include uncontrollable desire to consume drug, anxiety, restlessness and uncontrolled anger on forcing to stop drug abuse.

Digestive troubles: Sleeping pills addiction causes many negative effects on digestive system, mainly being loss of appetite, diarrhea, acidity, etc. Due to the irregular sleeping timings, the eating habits and timings also change, leading to the problems in digestive system. Decreased appetite ultimately results in malnutrition, putting the abusers total health at risk.

Nausea: Nausea is seen as a common problem in most of the drug addicts of any kind. This is one of the effects on digestive system. It is sense of uneasiness and also an involuntary urge to vomit. Generally, after an overdose of pills and heavy sleep, the person suffers from the sensation of vomiting, as the stomach of individual is empty, due to loss of appetite.

Drowsiness: Overdose of sleeping pills cause drowsiness or hangovers. After the intake of sleeping pills, the individual suffers from the sleeping effects even during day times. He/she feels sleepy and drowsy all through the day leading to hangover, which results in loss of concentration, lack of coordination, poor performance at workplace, excess tiredness, loss of memory etc.

Constipation: Constipation is a result of poor diet, very common in sleeping pills abusers. Improper eating habits and taking less fluids may lead to constipation. This results in flatulence and laziness.

Emotional Effects
Sleeping pills drug abuse impacts the emotional status of abuser severely. Some of the common emotional effects are as follows:

Parasomnias: Parasomnia is a stage in which the individual does not have any control over his actions, such as walking, talking, eating, and driving in sleep. During this stage, the person has no knowledge of what he is doing.

Delirium: Excess dosage of sleeping tablets results in delirium. Delirium is having a confused state of mind, during which the person undergoes serious delusions, hallucinations, clouded thinking, day dreaming, etc.

Tremors and seizures: Tremors and seizures are mostly occurred after an overdose of sleeping pills. These are sudden and uncontrollable shaking of some of the body parts like legs, arms and fingers. Sometimes the whole body becomes numb and the abuser loses the sense of touch.

Daytime effects: After heavy dose of sleeping pills during night, the effect still continues during daytime too. The effects may be like feeling sleepy, drowsy, and tired, loss of memory, and loss of concentration.

Dependency: There are high chances of an individual being addicted to the sleeping pills, due to the tranquilizing effect they create. A person whenever feels like having a sleeping problem goes for these pills immediately without having a second thought, in order to get relieved. Thus, he becomes addicted and highly dependent on the drug, which causes many side effects and may also lead to death on forcing to stop its intake.

As seen above, addiction of sleeping pills has very dangerous effects on human body. One of the best ways to avoid the harmful effects of abusing sleeping pills is by detecting the symptoms in the early stages and providing medication. Delayed recognition of these symptoms may increase the severity of the problems leading to many physical and emotional side effects on the body and may even result in more dangerous and incurable consequences such as, heart attacks, nervous breakdowns or death.

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Physical and Mental Effects of Abusing Sleeping Pills (Drugteststrips)

Sleeping pills act as sleeping aid for sleeping disorders, mainly insomnia and sleep apnea. Sleeping pills have some amount of hypnotic drug, which helps in creating a tranquilizing effect on the mind. Due to this, the mind of the person calms down, thus promoting sleep. They are always recommended by doctors in smaller dosages, for shorter periods, however chronic the problem may be. This is because, excess intake of sleeping pills exaggerate the problem further instead of curing it. Excess usage of sleeping tablets makes the individual get addicted to it leading to numerous and severe side effects on the body, sometimes proving to be fatal.

Symptoms of Addiction
A person suffering from sleeping pill addiction shows some symptoms, which are to be identified in order to provide timely medication. Regular consumption and overdose of sleeping tablets makes an individual addicted to it. They get into a situation of drug dependency, leading to severe restlessness on ceasing the intake of the drug. Some of the main symptoms shown by sleeping pill abusers are - deep and uncontrollable craving for drugs, dry mouth, drowsiness, headache, constipation, forgetfulness (on prolong usage may lead to severe amnesia also), anxiety, mood swings, loss of appetite, loss of weight, nausea, negative changes in personal behavior, poor performance at work, short temper, hallucinations, tremors and seizures, etc.

Physical Effects
Sleeping pills abuse causes many ill-effects on major parts of the body. Some of the physical side effects of sleeping pills abuse are:

Addiction: Sleeping pills have very less amount of drug which is used to bring a calming effect on the mind, thus helping the person to fall asleep. Consuming high amounts of pills at once, or continuously using these pills to get euphoric effect may lead to addiction. The abuser cannot think of any other way of curing his disorder - makes himself drug dependent. The major symptoms of drug addiction include uncontrollable desire to consume drug, anxiety, restlessness and uncontrolled anger on forcing to stop drug abuse.

Digestive troubles: Sleeping pills addiction causes many negative effects on digestive system, mainly being loss of appetite, diarrhea, acidity, etc. Due to the irregular sleeping timings, the eating habits and timings also change, leading to the problems in digestive system. Decreased appetite ultimately results in malnutrition, putting the abusers total health at risk.

Nausea: Nausea is seen as a common problem in most of the drug addicts of any kind. This is one of the effects on digestive system. It is sense of uneasiness and also an involuntary urge to vomit. Generally, after an overdose of pills and heavy sleep, the person suffers from the sensation of vomiting, as the stomach of individual is empty, due to loss of appetite.

Drowsiness: Overdose of sleeping pills cause drowsiness or hangovers. After the intake of sleeping pills, the individual suffers from the sleeping effects even during day times. He/she feels sleepy and drowsy all through the day leading to hangover, which results in loss of concentration, lack of coordination, poor performance at workplace, excess tiredness, loss of memory etc.

Constipation: Constipation is a result of poor diet, very common in sleeping pills abusers. Improper eating habits and taking less fluids may lead to constipation. This results in flatulence and laziness.

Emotional Effects
Sleeping pills drug abuse impacts the emotional status of abuser severely. Some of the common emotional effects are as follows:

Parasomnias: Parasomnia is a stage in which the individual does not have any control over his actions, such as walking, talking, eating, and driving in sleep. During this stage, the person has no knowledge of what he is doing.

Delirium: Excess dosage of sleeping tablets results in delirium. Delirium is having a confused state of mind, during which the person undergoes serious delusions, hallucinations, clouded thinking, day dreaming, etc.

Tremors and seizures: Tremors and seizures are mostly occurred after an overdose of sleeping pills. These are sudden and uncontrollable shaking of some of the body parts like legs, arms and fingers. Sometimes the whole body becomes numb and the abuser loses the sense of touch.

Daytime effects: After heavy dose of sleeping pills during night, the effect still continues during daytime too. The effects may be like feeling sleepy, drowsy, and tired, loss of memory, and loss of concentration.

Dependency: There are high chances of an individual being addicted to the sleeping pills, due to the tranquilizing effect they create. A person whenever feels like having a sleeping problem goes for these pills immediately without having a second thought, in order to get relieved. Thus, he becomes addicted and highly dependent on the drug, which causes many side effects and may also lead to death on forcing to stop its intake.

As seen above, addiction of sleeping pills has very dangerous effects on human body. One of the best ways to avoid the harmful effects of abusing sleeping pills is by detecting the symptoms in the early stages and providing medication. Delayed recognition of these symptoms may increase the severity of the problems leading to many physical and emotional side effects on the body and may even result in more dangerous and incurable consequences such as, heart attacks, nervous breakdowns or death.

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Exercising And Meditation Are Simple And Natural Ways To Escaping From Mental And Physical Fatigue (James Shane)

According to research it is revealed that an average human being works more than ever before. It is estimated that on an average people work 45 to 55 hours a week. The research also named the countries which population works the most while also mentioning the countries where people work the least number of hours a week. In this scenario it must also be considered that excess work would require great strength and maintenance of health. Due to stress related factors the human being falls pray to several types of physical and mental diseases. The life of a man is decreasing despite the fact that we have all the good scientific facilities available. This is mainly because men now work for more number of hours and focus more on earning money while set aside the requirements for maintaining his health.

Depression is one such medical ailment which is now the most common found disease in the world. This so called disease can be traced from the signs that are showed by the human beings. The symptoms include low moral and isolated opinion on every given matter, forced cheerful ness, separating from the rest of the people, skin diseases and low mood. This is often found in young people as they are the ones who are concerned with maintenance of their careers. When the signs or symptoms of depression are shown in an individual it is always better to get a check-up with the doctor. In such cases it is also advisable that a meeting with a psychologist shall be held. The factors that cause depressive attitude should be sorted out and then rooted out. For proper treatment of this illness it is necessary that the individual should show some self-confidence and must be able to self-motivate him or herself. The treatment of this illness requires consistency and depends upon the intensity of it, may be stretched to several days or weeks. For ADHD Dubai it can be safely said that the city can be relied upon. One more thing that could reduce this thing is the management of anger. Especially at work people shows sign of anger and frustration and there could be several reasons for this. Usually there are conflicting roles or an individual is smashed with a lot of quick work that needs to be done in short time span that results in stress and the person facing such situation lets out this stress by anger. If such stress is not let out then the person feels it on its own personality and therefore causes depressive attitude. For anger management Dubai city offers several services. One thing that tops the list of remedies is doing exercise and work out. One good exercise recommended to people by health experts is yoga. The exercise includes making some postures, doing meditation and breathing exercises that makes the person calm cool and composed. The era we live in requires us to take on several duties at the same time. This multi-tasking means that the individual needs to store some large amount of energy in it in order to diffuse all such responsibilities.

The research also named the countries which population works the most while also mentioning the countries where people work the least number of hours a week. This is mainly because men now work for more number of hours and focus more on earning money while set aside the requirements for maintaining his health. This so called disease can be traced from the signs that are showed by the human beings. The symptoms include low moral and isolated opinion on every given matter, forced cheerful ness, separating from the rest of the people, skin diseases and low mood. Having good healthy diet is also necessary in order to live a good life. Processing ...

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Exercising And Meditation Are Simple And Natural Ways To Escaping From Mental And Physical Fatigue (James Shane)

According to research it is revealed that an average human being works more than ever before. It is estimated that on an average people work 45 to 55 hours a week. The research also named the countries which population works the most while also mentioning the countries where people work the least number of hours a week. In this scenario it must also be considered that excess work would require great strength and maintenance of health. Due to stress related factors the human being falls pray to several types of physical and mental diseases. The life of a man is decreasing despite the fact that we have all the good scientific facilities available. This is mainly because men now work for more number of hours and focus more on earning money while set aside the requirements for maintaining his health.

Depression is one such medical ailment which is now the most common found disease in the world. This so called disease can be traced from the signs that are showed by the human beings. The symptoms include low moral and isolated opinion on every given matter, forced cheerful ness, separating from the rest of the people, skin diseases and low mood. This is often found in young people as they are the ones who are concerned with maintenance of their careers. When the signs or symptoms of depression are shown in an individual it is always better to get a check-up with the doctor. In such cases it is also advisable that a meeting with a psychologist shall be held. The factors that cause depressive attitude should be sorted out and then rooted out. For proper treatment of this illness it is necessary that the individual should show some self-confidence and must be able to self-motivate him or herself. The treatment of this illness requires consistency and depends upon the intensity of it, may be stretched to several days or weeks. For ADHD Dubai it can be safely said that the city can be relied upon. One more thing that could reduce this thing is the management of anger. Especially at work people shows sign of anger and frustration and there could be several reasons for this. Usually there are conflicting roles or an individual is smashed with a lot of quick work that needs to be done in short time span that results in stress and the person facing such situation lets out this stress by anger. If such stress is not let out then the person feels it on its own personality and therefore causes depressive attitude. For anger management Dubai city offers several services. One thing that tops the list of remedies is doing exercise and work out. One good exercise recommended to people by health experts is yoga. The exercise includes making some postures, doing meditation and breathing exercises that makes the person calm cool and composed. The era we live in requires us to take on several duties at the same time. This multi-tasking means that the individual needs to store some large amount of energy in it in order to diffuse all such responsibilities.

The research also named the countries which population works the most while also mentioning the countries where people work the least number of hours a week. This is mainly because men now work for more number of hours and focus more on earning money while set aside the requirements for maintaining his health. This so called disease can be traced from the signs that are showed by the human beings. The symptoms include low moral and isolated opinion on every given matter, forced cheerful ness, separating from the rest of the people, skin diseases and low mood. Having good healthy diet is also necessary in order to live a good life. Processing ...

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