We are witnessing an awful cognitive decline. Modern humans are not able to process complex information and even to think, anymore. Why? Or rather, what a kind of dramatic evolutionary phenomenon made this happen?
It is from this central and fundamental question that Romanian author and independent researcher Dan Mrejeru crafted a brilliant and well detailed collection of academic papers focused on the evolution and regression of human beings.
The collection, enriched with opinions and point of views of the same author and eminent scientists, gave rise to the book titled The Making, The Rise, And The Future Of The SpeakingMan. As you can see through the cover, this work is the fourth edition of an awe-inspiring analysis split into three important parts, which start from the creation (the making), the development (the rise) and the consequences (the future) of the so-called speaking man. The latter is the latest stage of human evolution that took place just 23,000 years ago, when the dominant species on our planet was Homo Sapiens.
Forced to survive and face a long series of complex events and complexities, early humans developed a strong neuronal network that made them able to think, process information and speak, shaping a new modern human species the author depicts as Homo Loquens or Speakingman.
This new species is the one we are still having today and that, unfortunately, does not have the skills of our ancestors. Despite all this loquacity, also proved by comments on digital chats and social media, the modern speaking man has lost his innate capacity to understand and, above all, to listen to the needs of his own kind. Because, as the book says, we are submerged by an ocean of information, but instead of diving, we drown.
In the book, the author gradually drives readers to discover interesting and scientifically backed perspectives. But it is essential to note that his work is not a mere nonfiction book, but a neuroscience volume sourced with excerpts, abstracts and citations of established scholars.
Moreover, the daughter of the author is a talented neuroscientist. Dan Mrejeru, instead, is an engineer who saw the dream to become a geologist denied in his country of birth, Romania.
Emigrated to the United States, the author achieved his dreams and learned English to show his research to the world. The setting of his book is, in fact, universal, because the expressed concepts are universal. The English language is academic, and suitable to be read and understood all over the world.
Furthermore, I found the book exceptionally international, with only a couple of punctuation misspells due to the European provenance of the author who pushed him to use different rules. The book is, in fact, well written, with a flow of words and methodical concepts that keep you glued from the first to the last page.
Indeed, blending geological events, prehistoric data and neuroscience discoveries, Dan Mrejeru offers us an optimal description on what has happened to the human brain over a long frame of time: from the flourishing of new neurons, who made us who we were until 200 years ago, to the current neuronal changes we are experiencing today. The tone of voice is technical and heartfelt at the same time, and you can always perceive the message this author intended to convey.
A review may not be enough to fully describe this book, many concepts would deserve to be reported entirely, such as the explanations I highlighted during the reading, which, among other things, is facilitated by the lack of footnotes, because references and quotes are properly integrated in the content.
Linear and nonlinear thinking, geomagnetism, oxidative stress and their influence on our brain, the transition from collectivism to individualism, the impairment of creativity, the manipulative brain of marketing and artificial intelligence, the risk of a slow but inexorable emotional and human decay due to unnatural neural networks that aim to mimic the learning skills of Homo Loquens.
This and much more is factually discussed and narrated in a book that is a wonderful journey into the past, present and future to save the world and ourselves from the miseries we have created.
