Ed Brayton is a freelance writer and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of Michigan Citizens for Science and co-founder of The Panda's Thumb. He has written for such publications as The Bard, Skeptic and Reports of the National Center for Science Education, spoken in front of many organizations and conferences, and appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows and on C-SPAN. Ed is also a Fellow with the Center for Independent Media.(static)
Ed Brayton also blogs at Positive Liberty and The Panda's Thumb
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Category: Chatter
Posted on: May 22, 2008 9:09 AM, by Ed Brayton
Here's a blog that cites and debunks some of our most common fake facts, including my personal pet peeve - the claim that we only use 10% of our brains. Every time someone throws that little nugget into a conversation, I know I'm dealing with an ignoramus.
YES! Send me a free issue of Seed.
If I like what I see, I'll receive 5 more issues (6 in all) for just $14.95. That's 50% off the cover price! If I'm not completely satisfied, I'll simply write "cancel" on the invoice and owe nothing. The free issue is mine to keep.
(Non-U.S. subscribers, click here.)
Comments
I dunno, Ed. You've posted about quite a few knuckleheads before that seem to only use 10% (or less) of their brains.
Posted by: llDayo | May 22, 2008 10:07 AM
Re: we only use 10% of our brains. It's a reassuring thought: I'm actually 10 times as bright and talented as all the evidence would otherwise suggest.
Posted by: Dr X | May 22, 2008 10:07 AM
Dennis Prager does only use 10% of his brain. Oh, and he eats the spiders on purpose.
Posted by: kehrsam | May 22, 2008 10:41 AM
Maybe 90% of Dennis Prager's brain (such as it is) was eaten by the spiders who commited suicide on Boxing Day by eating watermelon and jumping into the nearest pool. :) DJ
Posted by: Jimacbs99@hotmail.com | May 22, 2008 10:45 AM
I always had that eating and swimming thing thrown at me as a child. We'd get to the seaside bursting with energy, and first thing we'd have to sit down politely for a picnic, and then we wouldn't be allowed anywhere near the water for another half an hour in case we got cramps and drowned.
Posted by: Tycho the Dog | May 22, 2008 10:49 AM
If it's not mentioned on Factropolis, it has to be a myth.
Posted by: jpf | May 22, 2008 11:01 AM
Tycho: Did you get cramps and drown? Apparently not. And there were spiders hiding in the sandwiches.
Posted by: kehrsam | May 22, 2008 11:01 AM
LOL - But remember, Atrax robustus (The Sydney Funnel Web) can stay submerged for hours, even days! It is said (by some) to be the second deadliest spider in the world.
That is why poeple who have pools near the bush always check carefully before swimming :o -DJ
Posted by: DingoJack | May 22, 2008 11:08 AM
Ed,
I never thought I'd see you link to Cracked magazine as a source.
Posted by: HeartlessB | May 22, 2008 11:11 AM
I've been seeing Cracked linked to a lot recently. At some point they discovered the key to generating traffic is throwing together top x lists (their 7 insane conspiracies that actually happened is also interesting).
Posted by: jpf | May 22, 2008 11:22 AM
"Atrax robustus (The Sydney Funnel Web) can stay submerged for hours, even days! It is said (by some) to be the second deadliest spider in the world."
See, this is why I'm never going to visit your lovely country. I quote the great Terry Pratchett - the total text of the book Non-lethal Fauna of Australia - "Some of the sheep."
Posted by: BobApril | May 22, 2008 11:29 AM
Ahh yes but we EXPORT sheep. You never know which of those are the genetically modified killer sheep*. Mwhohahahaha. -DJ
*See the great low budget NZ film "Black Sheep".
Posted by: DingoJack | May 22, 2008 11:33 AM
Guy 1: What about the sheep?
Guy 2: Fuck the sheep!
Guy 1: No time for that bro. Go go go!
Clasic DJ. :D
Posted by: Abby Normal | May 22, 2008 11:39 AM
Ah, my friends and I were discussing the spider eating thing at the pub on Saturday night. I've always been 99% sure it was bullshit, mostly because I can't think of any method that would produce meaningful statistics on the subject of nocturnal arachnid ingestion.
It's nice to know the story behind the myth.
Posted by: Adrian | May 22, 2008 11:44 AM
Kehrsam: well now, come to think of it, I never did, so there must be some truth in the old wives' tale. One of my nan's picnic favourites was ox-tongue sandwiches. Spiders don't sound so bad in comparison.
Posted by: Tycho the Dog | May 22, 2008 12:00 PM
I'm with you on that blasted "10% of the brain" canard. I really hate it, and it's a virtually ubiquitous belief among my students. I teach biology at a large community college, and the most egregious example I've encountered was the day one of my students objected when I told the class this was untrue, citing her *psychology professor*, who had informed his apparently gullible class that the other 90% was available for the development of psychic powers. She refused to tell me the name of my idiotic colleague.
I'm actually pretty disappointed in the treatment of this myth in the article you cite. There are two irrefutable reasons this belief is false, and the author didn't mention either one.
The first is that we have a pretty good idea of what *all* of the brain is used *for*. There just isn't some big mystery region of the brain whose purpose has somehow escaped us.
But the best reason is that our big brains are incredibly *expensive* to us. They are immediately expensive, in that it takes a whole lot of our energy intake to keep them functioning and healthy. But more than this, they are very expensive to our species. Our oversized heads are the source of a lot of problems--they are the reason childbirth is so much more traumatic for human females than for, say, chimp females or gorilla females. Our babies' heads are just a whole lot bigger compared to the space they need to get through. They are the reason the human female pelvis is flared almost to the point of instability. They are the reason our babies are born half-way through the normal gestation of a higher primate (and are thus so very helpless and vulnerable, with incompletely formed skeletons and non-functional immune systems). Our babies are born while their brains are still much smaller than adult size, while a newborn chimp baby's skull is nearly as large as it will be when the chimp is an adult. If our babies had bigger skulls at birth, they'd never survive, nor would their unfortunate mothers.
So the very best refutation of this silly myth is evolutionary. If we didn't *need* those great big brains, selection would never have allowed them to become so big ;^)
Lynn
Posted by: Lynn | May 22, 2008 2:50 PM
The sheep talk reminded me of this classic bit of writing by John Cleese:
http://www.theamericans.us/cleese,%20axis%20of%20evil.html
Posted by: Taz | May 22, 2008 2:51 PM
BTW, we do only use 10% of our brain. The other 90% is used to store penguins. All due praise to Douglas Adams for revealing this fact.
You know, if some folks insist on making a religion from the writings of a science-fiction author, why couldn't it have been him, instead of that hack Hubbard? The religion would be no less ridiculous. But it would almost certainly be a good deal more entraining.
Speaking of Australia, sheep, and Douglas Adams, here's his view of Australia. Like most his writings it's both a useful guide (always carry a towel) and uniquely funny (why does a box of toothpicks have instructions anyway?).
Posted by: Abby Normal | May 22, 2008 3:36 PM
As I understand it (warning: this might also be an urban legend) if you did use all of your brain at once, it would look like an epileptic fit. Would that even be survivable? All of your muscles, voluntary and otherwise, would be trying to contract at once, all of your sphincters would be trying to open and close at the same time, everything in your body that was controlled by the brain (muscles, glands, organs and whatever else) would be trying to activate at once. You'd be trying to inhale and exhale at the same time, and every memory you had would be coming up, all at the same time.
It's just like saying that, "Your car is only firing on 1 out of 8 cylinders at a time. It could be 8 times as powerful." It can't be done without destroying it.
Note: no research was harmed in the making of this post.
Posted by: bill | May 22, 2008 3:37 PM
I thought it was because 90% of our brain matter is glial cells, not neurons. Although I have heard that glial cells are getting more respect these days.
No, the phrase that drives me crazy is when some body (idiot) says,
"I'm going to really give it 110% !"
(as in effort)
Can't you dial it up to 111, Nigel? Aargh! :D
Posted by: Gingerbaker | May 22, 2008 4:16 PM
http://www.snopes.com/science/stats/10percent.asp
Years ago I saw Pat Robertson on the 700 Club say that when you become Born Again(tm) you gain that other 90%.
Posted by: khan | May 22, 2008 4:36 PM
I know some people who have to use 100% of their brain just to keep up.
Practioners of Apologetics, be they flat-earthers, creationists, Abu Dubya Bush supporters etc, strain their brains to the limit to justify their beliefs. 100% is barely enough for them.
Posted by: grasshopper | May 22, 2008 5:49 PM
DingoJack - Killer mutant sheep? Sounds right up my alley :D Thanks for the recommendation! *clicks over to Netflix*
Posted by: Jyotsana | May 22, 2008 6:48 PM
Can we join Spain, Scotland and New Zealand to form "The four wheel-drive of countries that sometimes have evil thoughts about shearing sheep" (FWDCSHETASS)? -DJ
Posted by: DingoJack | May 23, 2008 9:16 AM
The spider and/or bug-eating thing was explained to me as merely the equivalent of bug/spider parts we get in processed foods, not having the little buggers crawl into our mouths (I'd never actually heard that one.)
Posted by: twincats | May 23, 2008 1:52 PM