Liveware and caring
- Kariem Elsaedi
- 5. Sept. 2021
- 3 Min. Lesezeit
Aktualisiert: 6. Aug. 2022
Liveware "Liveware" is a new term for neuroplasticity introduced by one of my favourite neuroscientist Dr. David Eaglemen. The term "plasticity" was first used by philosopher and psychlogist William James in 1890 in his book "The Principles of Psychology". He used this term to refer to plastic, the idea that we can mold objects into a specific shape and then they would hold that shape. However, the problem with "plasticity" is its semantics and how inaccurate it represents what is really going on in our brains all the time. The truth is that since you started reading this post your brain already looks differently then it was 5 minutes ago. Everything inside this 3 pound organ in your skull is changing and adapting all the time. From the receptor distrubtion inside each neuron, to its structure, to its biochemical cascade all the way down to the nucleus and the epigenome which is a protein on top of our DNA that has an effect on which Genes get more expressed or surpessed. And this is were the term "liveware" comes in: As we tend to use a hardware-software metaphor to understand how brains operate, liveware lies exactly between those two. It's where the borders of hardware and software melt and merge to one single unit that is always changing and adapting. Do you even care? I care about.... photography, music, snowboarding, cars, literature, medicine and on, and on, and on...? It's not surprising that we tend to engage more with what we care about. So, the more we engange the better we get and this is how the upward spiral begins. A never ending cycle. Learning is often thought of being hard, especially when it comes to school, colleague or universities. What if it wasn't...? What if opening a textbook gives you the same feeling you get when you grab your skies and go up a mountain. Or taking your camera to shoot some amazing art, or going to the gym or getting on your bike on an empty street. Learning something about those things isn't hard. We enjoy it, we embrace our mistakes and we are even sad when we have to stop and leave. We try to go on as long as possible even when we already feel exhausted just because doing the acitivity itself gives us so much joy. We make sure that we use every minute as efficient as possible and we get uncomfortable when we waste time that was dedicated to that task. Learning is actually something all of us enjoys. However, we only enjoy it when we truly care. When we don't we hate our life in that moment and we actually even experience pain. Think about how you felt when you had to learn something you didn't care about.
Liveware and caring So as I said caring about something makes engaging in that task so much easier and even enjoyable. When we care it becomes a part of us. Not metaphorcally but literally. Our livewired brain starts forming new physiological pathways to accomplish that task faster and with less effort over time. Chunks of experiences and knowledge start building up on each other forming an individual circuit and modell of this exact task. "Muscle memory" doesn't really exist in our muslces but in our brains. Mother nature - or whatever you would like to believe in - gave us the ability to learn almost anything with such ease. It only requires truly caring and hard persistnce.