Review by Melchi Asuma -- The Roving Mind: A Modern Appr...
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Review by Melchi Asuma -- The Roving Mind: A Modern Appr...

4 out of 4 stars
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Cognitive Enhancement, as defined by Anthony Simola in his book – The Roving Mind: A Modern Approach to Cognitive Enhancement- refers to the conscious or unconscious use of technologies and applying scientific research to improve facets of human intelligence, including working memory, focus, and vigour.
In all truth, everyone would like to enhance his/her intelligence and cognitive functionality in one way or another. This is why we go through all the trouble of eating right, sleeping, exercising and schooling. What Anthony Simola promises in The Roving Mind is the right attitudes and scientific principles to apply in order to properly augment human intelligence, especially individual intelligence. For starters, this book defines and gives the proper diet that an individual should consume in order to increase the brain’s functionality. It then proceeds to discuss the effects of nootropics, intelligence-enhancing drugs, and technologies. The author is very bold in making future predictions especially in the field of cognitive enhancement and intelligence augmentation. Finally, the book looks at the possibility of super intelligence, either arising from Artificial Intelligence or extremely cognitive-enhanced individuals and the likely effects of the arising of such a super entity. In all this, the book gives advice on how to make use of simple scientific principles and research in areas such as rest, motivation, dreaming and others to enhance cognitive development.
At first glance, it may seem as if the author is promising a magical path to high levels of intelligence. However, after reading it, I can safely conclude that the author was very cautious with his advice and made sure to back it up with various evidences. He also made sure to let us (the readers) know that intelligence augmentation is not a magical path but is one that requires a lot of discipline, focus and, ironically, a bit of intelligence on the individual’s part. As he put it, “Reading longer books builds the ability to focus, and the ability to focus allows one to read longer books.” Cognitive Enhancement is, as such, a cyclic process.
The writing was also very good. From the first word, the author was brief and concise with his wording. This made me enjoy reading the book, as it did not beat around the bush but went straight to the main points as quickly as possible. It also had no grammatical errors whatsoever. I, honestly, did not dislike any aspect of this book.
The book was, as implied earlier, very well professionally edited as I found no grammatical errors within its pages. It is also an informative, helpful, insightful, and entertaining book to read. For these reasons, I have to absolutely rate it the full 4 out of 4 stars. Readers interested in science and especially learning more about the brain and the mind will enjoy the book. Everyone who would like to enhance his/her intelligence should also enjoy this book immensely.
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The Roving Mind: A Modern Approach to Cognitive Enhancement
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