Is the right brain better than the left brain?

Summary:
In Chapter 1-3 of A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink explained the complexities of our brain and how our brain response to fMRI scans. He then went over the misconceptions that has pervaded over the years, and revealed the truth, mainly: (1) each side of our brain controls the opposite part of our body (2) the left hemisphere operates sequentially (3) the right hemisphere operates through context (4) the right hemisphere works holistically, whereas the left hemisphere pay attention to detail.

According to Pink, our society has a tradition of valuing left-brain thinkers, but the current trend is favoring those who can synthesize information with their right brain. He said that as our society evolves economically (from agricultural, to manufacturing, to industrial, and finally to informational), we have also created more abundance in resources. As a result, emphasis on material need becomes less important as people are seeking for spiritual, emotional, and artistic beauty, hence diminishing the values of left-brain activities. In addition to abundance, Pink said that automation and outsourcing of technical/engineering jobs devalued the need for left-brain thinkers.

Moreover, as we undergo a transformation from a society that relies on knowledge-based working sector and into a society that relies on creators and empathizers, our values also undergo changes. This change is toward people who can be creative, who have large emotional quotient over intellectual quotient, and those who have MFA rather than MBA.

Critique:
As I was reading Pink’s book, I have noticed that he simplified the brain by saying that they are literally two separate things. However, even if they are separate, they still have to function together in order for us to make any sense of our world. Perhaps, it might be more proper to say that each person has a mind that functions differently – which allow them to excel in their career choices– rather than that they are either left-brain thinkers or right-brain thinkers.

Summary:
In an audio of Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight, Jill started out by providing a personal account of how her brother’s schizophrenia led her to a career as a cognitive scientist, and then how a massive stroke shut down her own brain functions.

An interesting idea that she presented was that the left brain hemisphere is only about the past and about the future, and it thinks in language. But when she entountered a personal tragedy in which her left brain shuts off, she get to experience what it feels like for her left brain to shut off as she went in a journey to "lala land."

In the end she said that we have a choice of choosing whether to live in a world created by the left hemisphere or one created by the right hemisphere. For her, she would choose a world controlled by the right hemisphere since it is a more peaceful one. People would realize that they are not just individuals, but part of a collection of atoms wandering about the universe.

Critique:
I think that it is biased to say that the right half of the brain is more conducive to a peaceful world because it allows us to “experience” nervana. I am sure that there are those whose vision of the world through the right brain is as potent as it can be. On the other hand, I think that there are also left brain thinkers whose vision is that of a utopian world made up of logical, duty-orieted set of behaviors. Immanuel Kant’s categorical imperative, for instance, is based on logic.