Smarter Than You Think
How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better
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Narrated by:
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Jeff Cummings
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By:
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Clive Thompson
About this listen
How technology boosts our cognitive abilities - making us smarter, more productive, and more creative than ever before. It’s undeniable: technology is changing the way we think. But is it for the better? Amid a chorus of doomsayers, Clive Thompson votes yes. The Internet age has produced a radical new style of human intelligence, worthy of both celebration and investigation. We learn more and retain information longer, write and think with global audiences in mind, and even gain an ESP-like awareness of the world around us. Modern technology is making us smarter and better connected, both as individuals and as a society.
In Smarter Than You Think, Thompson documents how every technological innovation - from the printing press to the telegraph - has provoked the very same anxieties that plague us today. We panic that life will never be the same, that our attentions are eroding, that culture is being trivialized. But as in the past, we adapt, learning to use the new and retaining what’s good of the old.
Thompson introduces us to a cast of extraordinary characters who augment their minds in inventive ways. There’s the seventy-six-year-old millionaire who digitally records his every waking moment, giving him instant recall of the events and ideas of his life going back decades. There are the courageous Chinese students who mounted an online movement that shut down a $1.6 billion toxic copper plant. There are experts and there are amateurs, including a global set of gamers who took a puzzle that had baffled HIV scientists for a decade and solved it collaboratively - in only one month.
But Smarter Than You Think isn't just about pioneers, nor is it simply concerned with the world we inhabit today. It’s about our future. How are computers improving our memory? How will our social "sixth sense" change the way we learn? Which tools are boosting our intelligence - and which ones are hindering our progress? Smarter Than You Think embraces and interrogates this transformation, offering a provocative vision of our shifting cognitive landscape.
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- Narrated by: Claire L. Evans
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Women are not ancillary to the history of technology; they turn up at the very beginning of every important wave. But they've often been hidden in plain sight, their inventions and contributions touching our lives in ways we don't even realize. Vice reporter and YACHT lead singer Claire L. Evans finally gives these unsung female heroes their due with her insightful social history of the Broad Band, the women who made the Internet what it is today. Evans shows us how these women built and colored the technologies we can't imagine life without.
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Inspiring
- By Jean on 03-29-18
By: Claire L. Evans
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Too Big To Know
- Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren't the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room
- By: David Weinberger
- Narrated by: Peter Johnson
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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We used to know how to know. We got our answers from books or experts. We'd nail down the facts and move on. But in the Internet age, knowledge has moved onto networks. There's more knowledge than ever, of course, but it's different. Topics have no boundaries, and nobody agrees on anything.Yet this is the greatest time in history to be a knowledge seeker - if you know how.
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Good to know ...
- By John B. Fisher on 01-24-12
By: David Weinberger
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Thinking Machines
- The Quest for Artificial Intelligence - and Where It's Taking Us Next
- By: Luke Dormehl
- Narrated by: Gus Brown
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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When most of us think about artificial intelligence, our minds go straight to cyborgs, robots, and sci-fi thrillers where machines take over the world. But the truth is that artificial intelligence is already among us. It exists in our smartphones, fitness trackers, and refrigerators that tell us when the milk will expire. In some ways the future people dreamed of at the World's Fair in the 1960s is already here. We're teaching our machines how to think like humans, and they're learning at an incredible rate.
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Mostly platitudes with no depth
- By Gary on 03-24-17
By: Luke Dormehl
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The Formula
- How Algorithms Solve all our Problems…and Create More
- By: Luke Dormehl
- Narrated by: Daniel Weyman
- Length: 7 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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A fascinating guided tour of the complex, fast-moving, and influential world of algorithms - what they are, why they’re such powerful predictors of human behavior, and where they’re headed next. Algorithms exert an extraordinary level of influence on our everyday lives - from dating websites and financial trading floors, through to online retailing and internet searches - Google's search algorithm is now a more closely guarded commercial secret than the recipe for Coca-Cola.
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Not about algorithms. Not an original book.
- By Landon Rordam on 12-02-14
By: Luke Dormehl
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Outnumbered
- Exploring the Algorithms That Control Our Lives
- By: David Sumpter
- Narrated by: David West
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Our increasing reliance on technology and the Internet has opened a window for mathematicians and data researchers to gaze through into our lives. Using the data they are constantly collecting about where we travel, where we shop, what we buy, what interests us, they can begin to predict our daily habits, and increasingly we are relinquishing our decision making to algorithms - are we giving up this up too easily?
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A good reality check for "Cambridge Hyperbolitica"
- By Haggai Elkayam on 08-06-18
By: David Sumpter
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Group Genius
- The Creative Power of Collaboration
- By: Keith Sawyer
- Narrated by: Jonathan Marosz
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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In this authoritative and fascinating new audiobook, Keith Sawyer, a psychologist at Washington University, tears down some of the most popular myths about creativity and erects new principles in their place. He reveals that creativity is always collaborative: even when you're alone. Sawyer's audiobook is filled with compelling stories about the inventions that changed our world.
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Worth reading
- By Glenn on 12-29-10
By: Keith Sawyer
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Babel No More
- The Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Language Learners
- By: Michael Erard
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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We all learn at least one language as children. But what does it take to learn six languages...or seventy? In Babel No More, Michael Erard, "a monolingual with benefits," sets out on a quest to meet language superlearners and make sense of their mental powers. On the way he uncovers the secrets of historical figures like Italian cardinal Giuseppe Mezzofanti, who was said to speak seventy-two languages; Emil Krebs, a pugnacious German diplomat, who spoke sixty-eight languages; and Lomb Kat, a Hungarian who taught herself Russian by reading Russian romance novels.
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Heavy on anecdote, light on science
- By S. Yates on 07-15-16
By: Michael Erard
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Whiplash
- How to Survive Our Faster Future
- By: Joi Ito, Jeff Howe
- Narrated by: James Foster
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Today, not only is everything digital getting faster, cheaper, and smaller at an exponential rate, we also have the Internet. When these two revolutions - one in technology and the other in communications - joined, an explosive force was unleashed that changed the very nature of innovation. And with any change, we have seen many strategic blunders and extraordinary learning curves along the way.
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Just general advice on how to survive
- By A. Yoshida on 09-01-17
By: Joi Ito, and others
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The Chaos Imperative
- How Chance and Disruption Increase Innovation, Effectiveness, and Success
- By: Ori Brafman, Judah Pollack
- Narrated by: Drew Birdseye
- Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Ori Brafman and management consultant Judah Pollack dramatically demonstrate how even the best and most efficient organizations - from Fortune 500 companies to today's US Army - can become more innovative by allowing a little unstructured space and "contained chaos" into their planning and decision-making. Through their consulting work, they realized that while structure and hierarchy are essential both in large corporations and small groups, too much of either can stifle creativity.
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a must read!!
- By Kelly Pavich on 05-26-19
By: Ori Brafman, and others
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Digital Minimalism
- Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
- By: Cal Newport
- Narrated by: Will Damron, Cal Newport
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Minimalism is the art of knowing how much is just enough. Digital minimalism applies this idea to our personal technology. It's the key to living a focused life in an increasingly noisy world. In this timely and enlightening book, the best-selling author of Deep Work introduces a philosophy for technology use that has already improved countless lives.
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Disappointing
- By Aaron on 04-15-19
By: Cal Newport
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A Mind at Play
- How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age
- By: Rob Goodman, Jimmy Soni
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 11 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Claude Shannon was a tinkerer, a playful wunderkind, a groundbreaking polymath, and a digital pioneer whose insights made the Information Age possible. He constructed fire-breathing trumpets and customized unicycles, outfoxed Vegas casinos, and built juggling robots, but he also wrote the seminal text of the Digital Revolution. That work allowed scientists to measure and manipulate information as objectively as any physical object. His work gave mathematicians and engineers the tools to bring that world to pass.
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I wanted more information about Information Theory
- By Bonny on 05-08-18
By: Rob Goodman, and others
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World Without Mind
- The Existential Threat of Big Tech
- By: Franklin Foer
- Narrated by: Marc Cashman
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Franklin Foer reveals the existential threat posed by big tech, and in his brilliant polemic gives us the toolkit to fight their pervasive influence. Over the past few decades there has been a revolution in terms of who controls knowledge and information. This rapid change has imperiled the way we think. Without pausing to consider the cost, the world has rushed to embrace the products and services of four titanic corporations. We shop with Amazon, socialize on Facebook, turn to Apple for entertainment, and rely on Google for information.
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5-Star Book with a 1-Star Title
- By David Larson on 09-18-17
By: Franklin Foer
What listeners say about Smarter Than You Think
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- A. Yoshida
- 03-10-17
Title should be Getting Smarter Through Technology
The title gives the wrong impression that the book will reveal how technology can unleash hidden intelligence. It should have been titled "Getting Smarter Through Technology." It requires action - finding the right technology to fill in your gaps in knowledge or skills. For example, students can learn math through the Khan Academy website - watch math videos and complete exercises. Students are learning complex subjects like algebra and calculus at much younger ages because they can find the resources to teach them those subjects. They no longer have to depend on teacher's curriculum and move with the entire class at the same pace. Also, Internet search engines have allowed us to find answers to the many curious thoughts and questions running through our heads. Obviously, technological advancements have eroded some skills. Just as the invention of writing had eroded the skill of memorization. Technology has shortened our attention span and diminished our writing skills. However, the benefits are enormous and invaluable to those make use of it.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Carolina
- 03-17-14
We are all playing advance chess these days
Originally posted at: A Girl that Likes Books
We are all playing advance chess these days, we just haven't learn to appreciate it
Why I read this book?
I've been hearing about this book in several podcasts I follow. Being in my generation there is no doubt that we are touched by technology and a book that tackles the question to whether this is a good thing or not is always interesting. I got it through Audible and heard it with my boyfriend during commute.
What the book is about?
Thompson shows us in almost 11 hours, how every time a new technology has emerged it has been labeled in very black and white terms, however their whole effect is actually never just one or the other. Passing through cell phones, internet availability and more he defends his thesis that it all depends on the usage you give to the technology you've been given.
First impressions
The book was well researched. It has a nice pace and flow between chapters. In general it has an optimistic view of how we might be using technology.
Reading makes us a full man, conference a ready man and writing an exact man.
Final thoughts
The book was very interesting, shedding light into several current or recent events, and how technology was used in each situation, such as the Arab Spring. It was funny to hear about TV being the school of the future when it first was invented. On point that Thompson really works on is that one should not talk down or up new technologies right away.
One of the chapters I enjoyed the most it the one about ambient awareness and how social networks can bring change that affect communities in all possible levels of development. Group thinking, the development of "centaur" like creatures (man with computer) were all very interesting ideas that although I somehow knew about in the back of my mind I never sat down to ponder about them. I think the fact that I was listening to this with someone else made the experience even better since at the end of the day we would pause the book and discuss for a good while about it..
Jeff Cummings has a great voice for this non-fiction book.
Literacy has historically focus on reading, not writing; consumption, not production
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2 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 12-29-15
Find tech trends troubling? Take heart!
Wondering what will come of kids who never seem to unplug? Disturbed by 13 (and 33) year olds who would rather game than eat, or sleep, or breathe? Feeling deep blue about Watson taking over the world? Skim a few chapters of this book and take heart.
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- Kindle Customer
- 12-02-13
This book has a delightfully positive outlook
What made the experience of listening to Smarter Than You Think the most enjoyable?
As a person who loves technology and the Internet, this book was a breath of fresh air. Clive did a fantastic job of pointing out how we've been using technology since at least Roman times to augment our intellect and improve our effectiveness.
I was especially impressed with the chapter about how some teachers are using the Internet to improve their ability to give students more one-on-one attention.
I think this book should be turned into a video documentary.
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- RealTruth
- 01-12-15
not quite as smart as you think
Although this author makes some good points about the transcendence of machines into humans, on the whole the book is badly thought-through. Granted, I did learn some things from this author, such as about the wearable computer used to document years of some peoples' lives, a year of tweets which could be used to create a book, and the crowd sourcing phenomenon, I don't need to hear this author's opinion about race relations in the United States. After all, he claims to be a native of Toronto. He puts down racial segregation in the US, although he does not appear to be aware of the issues inherent. After all, how many whites want to be killed in a black neighborhood? And there is very little substance to this book other than what I have already mentioned, despite the hype it received in reviews. In summary, most people who claim to be "smarter than you think" are usually lying about their "smarter" qualifications, be they academic or otherwise.
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1 person found this helpful