12/31/99 03:18:56   (Tony_Buzan)   Many people have asked
12/31/99 03:19:04   (Tony_Buzan)   whether the year 2000
12/31/99 03:19:19   (Tony_Buzan)   and the beginning of the
12/31/99 03:19:19   (Tony_Buzan)   21st Century and the next Millennium
12/31/99 03:19:32   (Tony_Buzan)   is _really_ a significant date in history.
12/31/99 03:19:41   (Tony_Buzan)   or simply another passing year.
12/31/99 03:19:59   (Tony_Buzan)   For the brain,
12/31/99 03:19:59   (Tony_Buzan)   this moment in time
12/31/99 03:19:59   (Tony_Buzan)   is coincidentally
12/31/99 03:20:06   (Tony_Buzan)   and rather extraordinarily
12/31/99 03:20:15   (Tony_Buzan)   incredibly significant.
12/31/99 03:20:24   (Tony_Buzan)   The significance can be seen
12/31/99 03:20:28   (Tony_Buzan)   by imagining
12/31/99 03:20:32   (Tony_Buzan)   Time
12/31/99 03:20:47   (Tony_Buzan)   , from the beginning of the universe, to the corrent moment,
12/31/99 03:20:52   (Tony_Buzan)   as a gigantic pyramid
12/31/99 03:20:58   (Tony_Buzan)   with the "beginning of time"
12/31/99 03:21:04   (Tony_Buzan)   as its base.
12/31/99 03:21:14   (Tony_Buzan)   If we take the average scientific estimate
12/31/99 03:21:17   (Tony_Buzan)   of the age of the universe
12/31/99 03:21:27   (Tony_Buzan)   to be twelve billion years
12/31/99 03:21:53   (Tony_Buzan)   (12,000,000,000), this number forms the base of our pyramid.
12/31/99 03:22:03   (Tony_Buzan)   As we move up the sloping sides,
12/31/99 03:22:09   (Tony_Buzan)   the next number on our pyramid
12/31/99 03:22:22   (Tony_Buzan)   is the age of the planet which is now celebrating
12/31/99 03:22:28   (Tony_Buzan)   this new age.
12/31/99 03:22:36   (Tony_Buzan)   Planet Earth is estimated to be five billion years old
12/31/99 03:22:48   (Tony_Buzan)   (5,000,000,000).
12/31/99 03:23:07   (Tony_Buzan)   The next number concerns Life itself.
12/31/99 03:23:24   (Tony_Buzan)   Recent scientific estimates
12/31/99 03:23:24   (Tony_Buzan)   have pushed this barrier steadily backwards in time
12/31/99 03:23:28   (Tony_Buzan)   to a current estimation
12/31/99 03:23:37   (Tony_Buzan)   that life began in heated pools
12/31/99 03:23:58   (Tony_Buzan)   four and a half billion years ago (4,500,000,000).
12/31/99 03:24:14   (Tony_Buzan)   We next leap up our time scale
12/31/99 03:24:30   (Tony_Buzan)   to estimate the appearance on Earth
12/31/99 03:24:39   (Tony_Buzan)   of humankind - the first homo sapiens.
12/31/99 03:24:47   (Tony_Buzan)   This is a staggeringly short
12/31/99 03:25:01   (Tony_Buzan)   and mere three million years (3,000,000).
12/31/99 03:25:13   (Tony_Buzan)   Next we move forward
12/31/99 03:25:19   (Tony_Buzan)   to the evolutionary creation
12/31/99 03:25:28   (Tony_Buzan)   of the "modern" human brain.
12/31/99 03:25:57   (Tony_Buzan)   Surprisingly, this has existed for only fifty thousand years (50,000).
12/31/99 03:26:19   (Tony_Buzan)   Yes, you are communicating with us about the very topic
12/31/99 03:26:24   (Tony_Buzan)   of your own brain
12/31/99 03:26:33   (Tony_Buzan)   with the latest model!
12/31/99 03:26:39   (Tony_Buzan)   Next we move forward
12/31/99 03:26:42   (Tony_Buzan)   to the formation
12/31/99 03:26:57   (Tony_Buzan)   of the first human civilizations.
12/31/99 03:27:18   (Tony_Buzan)   These are estimated to have come into existence (if you believe we are yet civilized!)
12/31/99 03:27:31   (Tony_Buzan)   only ten thousand years ago (10,000).
12/31/99 03:28:11   (Tony_Buzan)   The next evolutionary step is nice to pose as a question:
12/31/99 03:28:33   (Tony_Buzan)   when do you think, as a global whole, the human race realised where their brain was located?
12/31/99 03:29:00   (Tony_Buzan)   (And I'm not referring here to where you may have been told where yours was located!)
12/31/99 03:29:23   (Tony_Buzan)   Surprisingly, the answer is not the average estimate of between ten and a hundred thousand years,
12/31/99 03:29:34   (Tony_Buzan)   but a tiny five hundred years (500).
12/31/99 03:30:10   (Tony_Buzan)   Even great philosphical and scientific thinkers such as Aristotle believe that the functions of the brain were primarily located in the heart and solar plexus areas
12/31/99 03:30:27   (Tony_Buzan)   , which if you think about it, for their time, was a completely rational assumption.
12/31/99 03:30:58   (Tony_Buzan)   - that area of the body is, after all, "the centre", does respond dramatically to mood, thought and action,
12/31/99 03:31:08   (Tony_Buzan)   and when it is severely damaged, terminates life.
12/31/99 03:31:18   (Tony_Buzan)   Next we move onto another question.
12/31/99 03:31:43   (Tony_Buzan)   In what timespan (calculate in years) has the human race discovered
12/31/99 03:33:04   (Tony_Buzan)   95 percent plus of what it has ever discovered about the internal workings of its own super bio-computer  - that miraculous two-kilogram organ - its brain?
12/31/99 03:33:37   (Tony_Buzan)   An astonishing ten years (10)!!
12/31/99 03:34:54   (Tony_Buzan)   Consider all the above in the context of our knowledge that everything we now know about the human brain is less than one percent of what there is to know about it
12/31/99 03:35:04   (Tony_Buzan)   and that our rate of knowledge increase in this area
12/31/99 03:35:33   (Tony_Buzan)   is accelerating in a logaritmic curve that is already approaching the vertical.
12/31/99 03:36:52   (Tony_Buzan)   Now look at the pyramid we have created and discover for yourselves how extraordinarily significant
12/31/99 03:37:20   (Tony_Buzan)   this moment in history (the very peak of our pyramid) is for the evolution of human intelligence.
12/31/99 03:37:40   (Tony_Buzan)   and for the evolution of humanity, the planet and its cargo of intelligence.
12/31/99 03:38:16   (Tony_Buzan)   And now if we can build that pyramid numerically,
12/31/99 03:38:31   (Tony_Buzan)   Let's now look at our numerical pyramid:
12/31/99 03:38:36   (Tony_Buzan)   10
12/31/99 03:38:41   (Tony_Buzan)   500
12/31/99 03:38:44   (Tony_Buzan)   10,000
12/31/99 03:38:47   (Tony_Buzan)   50,000
12/31/99 03:38:51   (Tony_Buzan)   2,000,000
12/31/99 03:39:00   (Tony_Buzan)   4,500,000,000
12/31/99 03:39:05   (Tony_Buzan)   5,000,000,000
12/31/99 03:39:26   (Tony_Buzan)   12,000,000,000
12/31/99 03:40:21   (Tony_Buzan)   As our numerical giza,
12/31/99 03:40:31   (Tony_Buzan)   the moment in time in which we now exist
12/31/99 03:40:54   (Tony_Buzan)   is like a funnel between two giant time-universes.
12/31/99 03:41:05   (Tony_Buzan)   We are transitioning from the twelve billion year high pyramid
12/31/99 03:42:08   (Tony_Buzan)   into the mirror-pyramid that will radiate from the peak we have now reached.
12/31/99 03:42:39   (Tony_Buzan)   Add, on this inverse figure, the same numerical steps of
12/31/99 03:43:03   (Tony_Buzan)   ten, five hundred, ten thousand, fifty thousand, three million, four and a half billion, five billion and twelve billion
12/31/99 03:43:17   (Tony_Buzan)   , bearing in mind that all the time the incredible
12/31/99 03:43:30   (Tony_Buzan)   acceleration of the speed at which we are discovering
12/31/99 03:43:34   (Tony_Buzan)   new knowledge about our cells
12/31/99 03:43:40   (Tony_Buzan)   and the universe around us,
12/31/99 03:43:45   (Tony_Buzan)   where do you think we will be
12/31/99 03:43:54   (Tony_Buzan)   at each one of those time-marks?
12/31/99 03:44:05   (Tony_Buzan)   It is my firm conviction
12/31/99 03:44:19   (Tony_Buzan)   that humanity truly has reached a moment in time
12/31/99 03:44:41   (Tony_Buzan)   in which "all change", or to put it another way, a sudden leap to Warp Nine,
12/31/99 03:45:21   (Tony_Buzan)   will be both the key concept and the magnitude of our speed of travel into new galxies of awareness.
12/31/99 03:45:50   (Tony_Buzan)   It is for these reasons that I and my colleagues truly do believe that this coming century
12/31/99 03:46:11   (Tony_Buzan)   will be above all, and deserves to be so named, the "Century Of The Brain"
12/31/99 03:46:23   (Tony_Buzan)   and that the coming millennium will similarly
12/31/99 03:46:35   (Tony_Buzan)   be and deserve to be named the Millennium Of The Mind.
12/31/99 03:46:57   (Tony_Buzan)   Please join with us
12/31/99 03:47:00   (Clive)   Hi Tony,
12/31/99 03:47:19   (Tony_Buzan)   in signing the first virtual "brain petition" (VBP)
12/31/99 03:47:27   (Tony_Buzan)   encouranging all people
12/31/99 03:47:35   (Tony_Buzan)   organisations, educational bodies
12/31/99 03:47:49   (Tony_Buzan)   and governments to log and click in
12/31/99 03:47:56   (Tony_Buzan)   to this new global initiative
12/31/99 03:48:04   (Tony_Buzan)   and for them, similarly,
12/31/99 03:48:13   (Tony_Buzan)   to declare privately and publically
12/31/99 03:48:24   (Tony_Buzan)   that we have indeed entered
12/31/99 03:48:32   (Tony_Buzan)   such a century and such a millennium
12/31/99 03:48:43   (Tony_Buzan)   and that they give it their full sanction, support
12/31/99 03:48:48   (Tony_Buzan)   and blessing.
12/31/99 03:49:07   (Tony_Buzan)   Floreant dendritae!
12/31/99 03:49:24   (Tony_Buzan)   Tony Buzan
12/31/99 03:49:35   (Clive)   Tony, Cathy, Sian and Peter send you very best wishes for the millenium ...and beyond!!
12/31/99 03:49:36   (MSO_Admin)   Tony is ready to take questions from the floor!
12/31/99 03:49:41   (Book)   ?
12/31/99 03:50:28   (Tony_Buzan)   Millennial greetings
12/31/99 03:50:44   (Tony_Buzan)   genius family/friends!
12/31/99 03:50:50   (MSO_Admin)   One moment, please, Book
12/31/99 03:51:00   (Tony_Buzan)   It's wonderful to have you with us
12/31/99 03:51:22   (Tony_Buzan)   at this synaptically significant season!
12/31/99 03:51:34   (Tony_Buzan)   Love to all.
12/31/99 03:51:44   (MSO_Admin)   Book, please ask your question!
12/31/99 03:52:15   (Book)   My question goes back to an earlier chat here, about brain usage,
12/31/99 03:53:24   (Book)   There was one Mr.Shereshevsky, did you find if he was the idiot savant + chess writer?
12/31/99 03:53:48   (Tony_Buzan)   Hello, Book!
12/31/99 03:54:04   (Tony_Buzan)   Good to be chatting to you at the dawn of the Century of the Brain
12/31/99 03:54:04   (Book)   Happy new millenium to all!
12/31/99 03:54:15   (Clive)   ?
12/31/99 03:54:19   (Tony_Buzan)   The answer is that the two Shereshevskys
12/31/99 03:54:36   (Tony_Buzan)   shared the same name
12/31/99 03:54:36   (Tony_Buzan)   but not the same body!
12/31/99 03:54:42   (Tony_Buzan)   Shereshevsky the mnemonist
12/31/99 03:54:55   (Tony_Buzan)   was also not an idiot savant
12/31/99 03:55:01   (Tony_Buzan)   ; he was a trained journalist
12/31/99 03:55:15   (Tony_Buzan)   was an exceptionally competent creative thinker
12/31/99 03:55:23   (Tony_Buzan)   and was, as you will probably know,
12/31/99 03:55:30   (Tony_Buzan)   the world's best recorded
12/31/99 03:55:39   (Tony_Buzan)   "perfect memorist"
12/31/99 03:55:47   (Tony_Buzan)   There is a glorious little book
12/31/99 03:55:59   (Tony_Buzan)   written by Professor Alexander Luria
12/31/99 03:56:17   (Tony_Buzan)   the direct psychological descendent of Pavolv,
12/31/99 03:56:26   (Tony_Buzan)   which discusses in exquisite detail,
12/31/99 03:56:42   (Tony_Buzan)   the nature of Shereshevsky's extraordinarily developed mental skills.
12/31/99 03:56:46   (Tony_Buzan)   Highly recommended!
12/31/99 03:57:02   (Tony_Buzan)   Once again, dear Book, happy Century of the Brain and Millennium of the Mind
12/31/99 03:57:07   (Clive)   what is the single greatest change to peoples' awareness of the brain and its capabilities that you anticipate in the early part of the new millennium?
12/31/99 03:57:24   (Book)   Sorry about the incorrect question, I think I have read the book in fact.
12/31/99 03:57:49   (Tony_Buzan)   I believe the greatest cahnge
12/31/99 03:57:57   (Tony_Buzan)   will literally be the awareness of intelligence
12/31/99 03:58:04   (Tony_Buzan)   about its own miraculous power
12/31/99 03:58:13   (Tony_Buzan)   Initiatives such as the one we are now running
12/31/99 03:58:30   (Tony_Buzan)   the explosive gworth and purchasing of books, materials and courses
12/31/99 03:58:37   (Tony_Buzan)   on the brain and brain-related topics
12/31/99 03:58:43   (Tony_Buzan)   will bring the world together
12/31/99 03:58:52   (Tony_Buzan)   in what might almost be described
12/31/99 03:58:55   (Tony_Buzan)   as an orgy of delight
12/31/99 03:58:58   (Tony_Buzan)   as we become aware
12/31/99 03:59:06   (Tony_Buzan)   of the magnificent gift
12/31/99 03:59:16   (Tony_Buzan)   we have all been blessed with.
12/31/99 03:59:21   (Tony_Buzan)   We will be like little children
12/31/99 03:59:32   (Tony_Buzan)   are when they have just done
12/31/99 03:59:36   (Tony_Buzan)   something exceptional
12/31/99 03:59:41   (Tony_Buzan)   and have been praised and loved
12/31/99 03:59:46   (Tony_Buzan)   as a reward.
12/31/99 03:59:52   (Tony_Buzan)   I truly believe
12/31/99 04:00:05   (Tony_Buzan)   that our investigation of, and increasing understanding of,
12/31/99 04:00:10   (Tony_Buzan)   our own potential
12/31/99 04:00:22   (Tony_Buzan)   is the greatest chance we have for
12/31/99 04:00:34   (Tony_Buzan)   building the utopia about which
12/31/99 04:00:34   (Tony_Buzan)   all of us dream
12/31/99 04:00:35   (Tony_Buzan)   and for bringing about
12/31/99 04:00:39   (Tony_Buzan)   a greater humanity,
12/31/99 04:00:44   (Tony_Buzan)   spirituality,
12/31/99 04:00:54   (Tony_Buzan)   and possibility for true and lasting
12/31/99 04:01:02   (Tony_Buzan)   world peace.
12/31/99 04:01:15   (MSO_Admin)   One more question, please.
12/31/99 04:01:18   (Clive)   What advice would you give to children who want to use their brains to their fullest ability?
12/31/99 04:01:54   (MSO_Admin)   Speedy, we shall also take one question from you if you like.
12/31/99 04:02:10   (MSO_Admin)   1) Make their brains and bodies their prime hobby.
12/31/99 04:02:14   (MSO_Admin)   Focus on the
12/31/99 04:02:28   (Tony_Buzan)   understanding and development
12/31/99 04:02:35   (Tony_Buzan)   of each in conjunction with the other
12/31/99 04:02:49   (Tony_Buzan)   and follow the principle of Mens sana in corpore sano
12/31/99 04:02:56   (Tony_Buzan)   2) Learn memory skills
12/31/99 04:03:07   (Tony_Buzan)   , especially mnemonics.
12/31/99 04:03:10   (Tony_Buzan)   Next, learn to mind map
12/31/99 04:03:21   (Tony_Buzan)   and to use mind maps for analytical,
12/31/99 04:03:33   (Tony_Buzan)   strategic, creative and all other forms of thinking.
12/31/99 04:03:44   (Tony_Buzan)   Next, study, as da Vinci recommended,
12/31/99 04:03:54   (Tony_Buzan)   the "science of Art".
12/31/99 04:04:06   (Tony_Buzan)   Next, continue to ask questions
12/31/99 04:04:14   (Tony_Buzan)   especially about your brain and assumptions.
12/31/99 04:04:23   (Tony_Buzan)   Next, maintain, throughout life,
12/31/99 04:04:37   (Tony_Buzan)   a positive and "can do" attitude
12/31/99 04:04:49   (Tony_Buzan)   Next, learn to read
12/31/99 04:05:00   (Tony_Buzan)   and study faster and with better comprehension.
12/31/99 04:05:14   (Tony_Buzan)   Next, start book and electronic libraries
12/31/99 04:05:23   (Tony_Buzan)   of their favourite Brain Books.
12/31/99 04:05:27   (Tony_Buzan)   Learn to play mind sports
12/31/99 04:05:41   (Tony_Buzan)   such as chess, card games, mental skill games etc -
12/31/99 04:05:54   (Tony_Buzan)   they are like gymnasiums for your brain.
12/31/99 04:06:05   (Tony_Buzan)   Next, make sure you have fun while you do all the above!
12/31/99 04:06:21   (MSO_Admin)   Speedy, you have not asked a question.
12/31/99 04:06:27   (MSO_Admin)   Would you like to ask a concluding question?
12/31/99 04:06:27   (Clive)   We/They do - many thanks!!
12/31/99 04:06:49   (MSO_Admin)   (Don't worry if you don't!)
12/31/99 04:07:30   (Clive)   Bye from all of us here - see you soon
12/31/99 04:08:01   (MSO_Admin)   OK, I think we shall conclude this session.
12/31/99 04:08:09   (MSO_Admin)   Please sign the Virtual Brain Petition
12/31/99 04:08:23   (MSO_Admin)   and ask your contacts to join us - and to pass this message on!
12/31/99 04:08:39   (MSO_Admin)   Tony will be celebrating
12/31/99 04:08:44   (MSO_Admin)   Day One again in 46 hours time
12/31/99 04:08:56   (MSO_Admin)   during the final hour of Day One -
12/31/99 04:09:00   (MSO_Admin)   celebrated in Samoa.
12/31/99 04:09:13   (MSO_Admin)   That will be between 10am and 11am on Sunday 2nd January.
12/31/99 04:09:29   (MSO_Admin)   He will also appear to review the 48-hour day
12/31/99 04:09:35   (MSO_Admin)   in our usual chat session scheduled period
12/31/99 04:09:43   (MSO_Admin)   from 9pm on Sunday 2nd January.
12/31/99 04:09:51   (MSO_Admin)   We hope to see you all again there!
12/31/99 04:10:21   (MSO_Admin)   Please don't forget to sign the Virtual Brain Petition!
12/31/99 04:10:35   (MSO_Admin)   Happy New Century of the Brain...
12/31/99 04:10:43   (MSO_Admin)   and New Millennium of the Mind!
12/31/99 04:11:15   (Tony_Buzan)   Goodbye!
12/31/99 04:11:20   (Tony_Buzan)   And, once again,
12/31/99 04:11:22   (Book)   goodbye!
12/31/99 04:11:33   (Tony_Buzan)   Happy New Century of the Brain and Millennium of the Mind!
12/31/99 04:11:40   (Tony_Buzan)   And make sure that at least once in the next few hours
12/31/99 04:11:46   (Tony_Buzan)   you raise a toast with the
12/31/99 04:12:09   (Tony_Buzan)   you raise your glasses with the Century of the Brain toast -
12/31/99 04:12:15   (Tony_Buzan)   Floreant Dendritae!
12/31/99 04:12:23   (Tony_Buzan)   (May your brain cells flourish!)