Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Use Second Life and get brainier - Imagination made tangible

In his book The Brain That Changes Itself, Norman Doidge explained,“experiments have shown that we can change our brain anatomy simply by using our imaginations.” He goes on to say, "...the faster you can imagine something, the faster you can do it.”

Unless you are a neuroscientist, it is difficult to appreciate the seismic shift that is taking place regarding our understanding of the brain, but scientific evidence is piling up: the more imaginative and creative we are, the better our brain works. In fact, no matter what our age may be, it seems that the more we stimulate our brains, the faster we produce new cells or neurons.

Here's someone who's imagination is firing on all cylinders... rebecca's profile on her Flickr stream reads as follows: "the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars"


Dreamscape Escape - This would be easy to do in Second Life®, but we have to love the thinking that made this happen in Real Life. It does beg the question, though... what would Rebecca be capable of in virtual worlds?

Now then, I've said it before and I'll say it again.. Second Life is the most affordable and complete tool I know of to commit hardcore creativity. It is also the place where the distance between imagination and tangible creations is the shortest. I personally know hundreds of people in Second Life who are capable of dreaming up something completely new in the morning, and by evening are already sharing it with others.

4 comments:

Joan Kremer said...

Hi Bettina,

I was excited to read your post. What you say is so true, something that I've been telling everyone who'll listen for months. I love how you put it: "most affordable and complete tool ... for hardcore creativity"!

As a writer, I've found SL an incredible source of creative inspiration, and have blogged about that several times at Writers in the (virtual) Sky. I've benefited a lot so far from this aspect of SL, and am glad to see others also talking about it!

Joan

Bettina Tizzy said...

Thank you, Joan. I suspect that there are more of us who feel this way, and I'm glad to hear that you are one of them.

Anonymous said...

Great point!
More I am here, more I treat SL as a brain-fitness center. maybe it's not a muscle, but it enjoys some good exercise.

Anonymous said...

I absolutely agree, and I hope that even the not so creative people in SL will be able to expand themselves and eventually become creative.

In the time I've been inworld, I've met so many intelligent and creative people. Such is part of SL's beauty.

Thank you Bettina for your blog. I really enjoy visiting it and looking at the projects you recommend. Kudos for being in Paisley's show! I love the outfit!