Audio: Susan Greenfield and Lisa Jardine on the quest for identity

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Audio: Susan Greenfield and Lisa Jardine on the quest for identity

01 Apr 2009

Speakers: Lisa Jardine, Baroness Susan Greenfield

The nature of individual identity is dissected by two of Britain’s most outstanding intellectuals, renowned for their prominence in many disciplines and their ability to make complicated issues easily understandable. Jardine and Greenfield discuss human nature, our past, what makes us individual, the connection between the brain and the mind, and what a society of fulfilled individuals would actually mean.

Susan Greenfield and Lisa Jardine discuss Greenfield’s 2009 book ID, the theories it examines, and the science around it. Discussing the brain, the environment, and the person, Greenfield looks at adaptability and modern scientific experiments, showing that the dichotomy between the physical and the emotional is no longer valid. She explains the personalisation of the brain through brain cell connections which link the cognitive to the sensory and how these connections can gradually dismantle, leading to dementia.

Jardine and Greenfield then pick up the topic of changing stimuli in cognitive development; Greenfield describes the educational process of reading books compared with that of interpreting virtual images. Jardine then asks whether or not the post modern child of the ‘screen age’ can make the deep connections that children of previous generations could. Greenfield explains the recklessness, hedonism and sensation associated with the pre frontal cortex of the brain, linking children, schizophrenia, gambling and obesity. Does increased exposure to video games over-stimulate the pre-frontal cortex and lead to a society of uncaring hedonists?

Greenfield addresses Jardine’s criticism of her book; namely that it does not predict the results of a rapidly changing society fixated on sensational experiences and void of a narrative. The speakers speculate over the consequences of science for reproductivity, life expectancy, and human appearance. From biotechnology, Greenfield turns to nanotechnology and the potential of transhumanism and enhanced intellectual power.

Lisa Jardine

Writer, broadcaster, and Professor of Renaissance Studies
Baroness Susan Greenfield

Scientist, writer, broadcaster, and member of the House of Lords