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 The Brain That Changes Itself:
Stories of Personal Triumph
from the Frontiers of Brain
Science
by Norman Doidge. Penguin.
2007. 427 pages. Paperback. $16.
In this New York Times bestseller, Doidge shares compelling success stories from the new science of “neuroplasticity,” which studies ways the brain can rewire itself to recover from traumatic damage. The individual stories—stroke trauma undone, a half-brain that conditioned itself to function as a whole, IQs that raised themselves, learning disorders that their sufferers overcame, and aging brains that rejuvenated to their youthful vitality—offer signs of great impending neuroscience breakthroughs.
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The Future of the Internet—
And How to Stop It
by Jonathan Zittrain. Yale University
Press. 2008. 342 pages. $30.
The Internet is undergoing a dangerous pendulum swing from too much freedom to too little, argues Zittrain. The ability of anyone to log on and modify content, which was the
Internet’s initial hallmark, paved the way for proliferations of viruses, spyware, spam, invasions of privacy, and crippling faulty code. Industries responded by creating a “lockdown” by means of “tethered appliances” like iPod and TiVo that they can modify but their users and third parties cannot. Zittrain argues that we should not give up freedom for security. He places hope in cooperative uses like Wikipedia, in which users work in tandem with public monitors to ensure a safer Web. Check price/buy book.
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