• Question: If you could unlock the ultimate full capacity of the brain to reach self-actualisation, would you?

    Asked by anon-203747 to Vassilis, Tirso, Matthew, Jane, Dawn, Alexandra on 2 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Matthew Longo

      Matthew Longo answered on 2 Mar 2019:

      There are some presuppositions to this question that I think I don’t agree with. I’m all for findings ways to improve educational practice to help people develop their abilities to the fullest. But I don’t believe that there’s any unused pool of brain resources sitting idly by which could be ‘unlocked’.

    • Photo: Tirso Gonzalez Alam

      Tirso Gonzalez Alam answered on 3 Mar 2019:

      I think that’s pretty much what education is trying to achieve. When we learn stuff, we’re basically trying to unlock the full capacity of the brain and reaching self-actualisation, right? So in that sense, it would be a strong ‘yes’ from me (or if you meant this question in a more sci-fi, augment-your-brain kind of way, it still would be a yes from me; I’d love to give more mental power to people, as long as it’s done in a fair way!).

    • Photo: Alexandra Quigley

      Alexandra Quigley answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      This is an interesting question, which I think is informed by ideas that are sometimes popular in films , such as the idea that we only ever use 10% of our brain. This idea is not really true. But let’s say that I *could* develop some kind of superpower and be cleverer, be better or quicker at certain brain-related activities (which I guess includes ALL activities that humans do!). It would be nice to be able to understand everything at a deeper level, and to be able to gain new information at a much quicker rate, but maybe it would come at a cost. Maybe it would make it difficult for me to concentrate on one thing if I was able to learn about a million different things? Maybe it would affect my relationships with other ‘normal’ people who were much slower at learning?

      I think I’d like to be quicker at picking up info, but I don’t think that being a super-brain would be much fun.

    • Photo: Dawn Rose

      Dawn Rose answered on 4 Mar 2019:

      Well, I rather like sci-fi, so I think this question is interesting in terms of imagining different possibilities, but in reality that is what learning is about. I would rather block the capacity of some ‘brains’ so that they could understand that barriers to learning stop many people fulfilling their potentials.

    • Photo: Vassilis Sideropoulos

      Vassilis Sideropoulos answered on 6 Mar 2019:

      I will agree with Matthew about the presuppositions – there’s not really an ultimate full capacity of the brain that can be unlocked, we use our full capacity in every day life. It’s more about how effectively we use the knowledge we have.

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