The study showed that humans who used Google a lot were becoming worse at remembering certain things

At http://www.businessinsider.com/the-human-body-as-you-know-it-is-over-2013-4

Nicholas Carlson | Apr. 15, 2013, 8:54 AM

Here is what happens.

Humans invent technology. 

Then technology re-invents humans.

According to NewScientist, most humans were pretty lousy at using hand tools when they were first invented 1.7 million years ago.

The reason: primitive wrists that were "good for hanging from branches, but too weak to grasp and handle small objects with much force."

But by 800,000 years ago, humans had great hands for using tools.

What happened between those years?

A newly discovered set of bones – from between those eras, 1.4 million years ago – gives us a clue.

The 1.4 million-year-old bones reveal human hands that were better for using tools than the ones from 1.7 million years ago, but not as good as hands from 800,000.

The 1.4 million year-old-hand had "a small lump at its base – the styloid," that allowed helped stabilize wrists, allowing the hand to grip smaller objects.

The newly-discovered bones reveal that, over time, human hands progressed along an continuum of evolution.

Human bodies evolved to better use human-invented technology.

The New Scientists puts the theory this way: "As stone tools became more widespread, those who had the wrist structure to use them would have had an evolutionary advantage over their weaker-wristed kin."

What does this mean for today's humans? 

It means new technologies like the Internet, Google search, and portable, powerful computers such as the iPhone are inevitably going to change us as a species – re-wiring our brains and molding our bodies.

You can already see this happening. 

First of all, a person and a people's technical literacy and economic prosperity are obviously linked in a cycle where one improves and reinforces the other.

Secondly, there is the impact that Google is having on our brains.

In 2011, Science published a study called: "Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips."

The study showed that humans who used Google a lot were becoming worse at remembering certain things. To many, the study seemed to suggest that Google was making us stupid.

But what the study actually showed was that humans have simply learned to remember differently – in a way that allows us to actually remember, and use, much more information.

Ars Technica nicely summarized its conclusion: "People are recalling information less, and instead can remember where to find the information they have forgotten."

Our brains are adapting to a world in which we can store and find information in a centralized brain.

It's pretty amazing. It took our hands 900,000 years to grow fully accustomed to physical tools.

Google was invented less than 20 years ago, and it's already re-wiring our bodies.

Imagine how human brains and bodies will work in another 20 years, when computers will have been next to, on, or in bodies for generations – providing constant connection to each other and all the information in the... ( more at http://www.businessinsider.com/the-human-body-as-you-know-it-is-over-2013-4 )

Avoiding Landfill: The Second Life of Products

At http://www.triplepundit.com/2013/04/second-life-products/

By 3p Contributor | April 9th, 2013

By Priscilla Burgess

A while back, I asked Celery Design Cooperative to figure out green packaging for our insulation that didn't cost more than the product itself. Celery's studio was next door to a sake distillery. Daily the staff watched fat, white bags of rice being dumped in the yard, then flat, white bags thrown into a dumpster.

Celery Design borrowed some bags, turned them inside out, silkscreened our logo on them and stuffed the insulation inside. I was thrilled with the entire concept: find a new use for polypropylene bags that never degrade and keep them out of the waste stream. This was the first time I'd heard about repurposing. I thought it was a brilliant solution.

Then reality struck. Where were we going to find more bags? How could we guarantee a large enough supply that would be delivered as needed? Who was going to turn them inside out and silkscreen them? How were they going to be stuffed? Would the insulation be damaged by stuffing and unstuffing? How would we collect the bags from the construction site? There was no system set up to repurpose grain bags. I realized we'd have to start another company just to manage our packaging.

Repurposing grain bags would not require locking techies up in a room for five years to figure out the process. The process is clear. It's just that no one is doing it.

The idea of a second life for products is familiar on an informal, piecemeal basis. We have garage sales, flea markets, antique shops, city recycling and myriad other ways of passing on stuff we don't want any more.

However, this approach doesn't work on a corporate level. While I enjoy searching for treasures in other people's junk, I realized it just wasn't feasible to set up my own repurposing scheme to manage packaging. This realization caused me to question the way people think about keeping stuff out of landfills.

Who should be responsible? The manufacturers or the products' owners at the end of its usefulness? Or could there be a third way?

Ken Alston of MBDC, a C2C company, believes that managing the second life of products will be a huge new industry. The jobs created will be new, not just shuffled from one company to another. This new industry will include repurposing, reuse, recycling, and all the other re-'s. It has already started.

repurposedMATERIALS in Colorado has kept over two million pounds of waste out of landfill in the two years since Damon Carson started his business. There's a fair amount of creativity involved in his work as well as a broad knowledge of industries and materials. Who knew that discarded steel cables from Colorado ski resorts would be treasured by the dredging industry in Minnesota? Or that discarded burlap bags that had once held coffee beans would be perfect for shipping seafood? The important point is that none of the companies had to figure this out for themselves. A third company did it for them.

So, rather than trying to force manufacturers to set up a process for the second life of their products, there are a couple things they could do: be sure the materials the products are made from are clearly stated on the product itself or published on their websites. This would tell Carson if, for example, the burlap bags would be safe to hold food; they could include information about companies who manage the second life process.

If the companies knowingly make dangerous products, like petroleum companies; include planned obsolescence in their bottom lines, like Apple Computer; or manufacture products with no second life, like fluorescent lights, they should help pay for recycling, reuse, or environmental clean up.

For those who own the products at the end of their usefulness, there has to be a way to collect them and send them on to the repurposer.

One example of a very easy process is that used for laser printer cartridges. The old one goes into the box the new one came in. There is a sticky-backed shipping label in the box with instructions of where to drop it off. The process is so convenient there is little resistance to using it. HP claims that hundreds of millions of cartridges have been kept from landfill by their recycling... ( more at http://www.triplepundit.com/2013/04/second-life-products/ )