Elevator Pitch on Brains and Technology

Human brains are adaptable organs.  They are designed to absorb and process information, to find patterns and generalize, and store information in the many forms it finds and creates.  As a social species, communication is an essential aspect of human life as well.  Human brains are born into a social group and that groups form a sociocultural context the exerts permanent effects on the way information is understood by each brain.  Family relations, language, survival techniques, and social expectations are all defined by the society and culture in which a brain develops.  For much of human history, information technologies have been an important aspect of the sociocultural context that affects the development of human brains. Technology allows us to remove cognition from our brains and extend our physical capabilities. Societal norms determine what cognition it is appropriate to download and what physical capacities we can extend.