24 Hours of Absolute Solitude
January 3, 2006 by admin
Filed under Uncategorized
Every year, John Brockman, the editor of Edge.org asks some of the smartest folks in science and technology to pontificate upon a particular question. This year’s question is…What is your dangerous idea? ‘An idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true?‘
Among the responses, one that stood out for me was from Leo Chalupa, a professor of Ophthalmology and Neurobiology at the University of California at Davis. Leo’s dangerous idea is for everyone to experience a 24-hour period of absolute solitude. I agree with Leo in that our brains are constantly subjected to a world of multi-tasking and endless streams of information. We need to turn it all off once in a while. In Leo’s own words…
My dangerous idea is that what’s needed to attain optimal brain performance — with or without prior brain exercise — is a 24-hour period of absolute solitude. By absolute solitude I mean no verbal interactions of any kind (written or spoken, live or recorded) with another human being. I would venture that a significantly higher proportion of people reading these words have tried skydiving than experienced one day of absolute solitude.
Leo thinks we should do this once a year. Gee, I’d love to do this once a week!
Here’s the link to Leo’s full response to the dangerous idea question and this link will take you to the complete list of participants and their answers.
[via BoingBoing]
As a busy mother and wife I crave the tiny slices of solitude I can carve out of my day. A full 24 hours would be such an indulgence, it does border on dangerous. Great idea for a blog.
Heather – I just became a foster dad a couple of months ago and I’ve quickly rediscovered the value of even a few minutes of peace and silence. Thanks for stopping by.