Latest thinking

Changing our minds about changing the brain.

Blog

13 Jun 2012

Jonathan Rowson

When I first learned of 'neuroplasticity' I was very excited by the idea that we might be able to understand the brain well enough to change it in precise and purposeful ways.

Networked facts are the new black

Blog

04 Jan 2012

Facts are so last century. In the Internet-dominated world, networked facts have pretty much taken over. The old-fashioned view of the fact is that it is an irreducible atom of knowledge. The way information is organised on the Web means that everything is connected and it is only as a result of the links between elements of information that facts come into being.

Thinking, fast and slow

Blog

15 Nov 2011

This evening, a lucky audience will have the privilege of listening to Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman in conversation with Richard Layard at an event hosted by LSE. They will be discussing Kahneman’s new book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, which distils the author’s lifetime of work on the triumphs and pitfalls of conscious and unconscious thinking.

Transforming Behaviour Change

Blog

17 Oct 2011

Jonathan Rowson

An Astrologer once told me that I have an exalted sun in my house of enemies. This positive feature of my chart meant that bad feelings towards me are 'burnt up' by the heat of the sun, for which I am grateful. I have never really understood the basis on which astrology might conceivably make sense on even the most charitable interpretation, so I had to take his word for the rationale, but I appreciated the thought, which resonated with my experience.

The Guardian on Liberalism

Blog

03 Oct 2011

Good to see The Guardian launching a series of reflections on Liberalism.  Nice also to see Giles Fraser contrasting his approach with the idiocy that passes for debate about Liberalism in the States and also admitting that he has "shifting instincts" on the topic. But the most hopeful sign is that Fraser acknowledges that lots was said about freedom for centuries before Liberalism even emerged as a coherent ideology - ties in nicely with my own recent Freedom Misunderstood blog posts.  So, all in all, planning to keep a close eye on this one.

Are we Neuromaniacs?

Blog

23 Jun 2011

Jonathan Rowson

I am bored by reading people who are allies, people of roughly the same views.  What is interesting is to read the enemy; because the enemy penetrates the defences. - Isaiah Berlin

The Embodiment of Life: Francisco Varela (1946-2001)

Blog

30 May 2011

Jonathan Rowson

On Wednesday I will be attending a conference to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the untimely death of Francisco Varela, organised by the Centre for Real World Learning, and hosted at City University in London. There are still places available for those who wish to attend.

Job! RSA seeks social brain to join Social Brain.

Blog

12 May 2011

Jonathan Rowson

Senior Researcher, Social Brain

The Master and his Emissary(1): The Book of the Century?

Blog

22 Nov 2010

Jonathan Rowson

Over the last decade, I have read a lot of non-fiction books, most of them broadly related to human development, from the technical end of popular science to the facile end of self-help. Highlights have been Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind by Claxton,  The Happiness Hypothesis by Haidt, Ethical Know-how by Varela, Connected by Christakis and Fowler, Into the Silent Land by Brocks, and Immunity to Change by Kegan and Laskow. All of these books (alas, mostly written by middle-aged white men) marshalled evidence to elegantly describe and develop a core thesis about human nature, and all of them answered the 'so what?' question about practical implications very powerfully.