In Chapter Two of The Shallows, which is titled “The Vital Paths,” Nicholas Carr presents a thesis whereby he presents an example of the ability for our tools, or “writing equipment” to inspire the way we create. There is almost a sense of Pathos when he discusses the suffering of Fredrich Nietzsche, his illness and desperation that nearly drive him over the edge until he buys a typewriter! But this typewriter wasn’t just any old contraption. It was “A Danish made Malling-Hansen Writing Ball,” one of the cutting edge instruments for writers of the day. “It resembled an ornate golden pincushion. Fifty-two keys, for capital and lowercase letters as well as numerals and punctuation marks, protruded from the top of the ball in a noncentric arrangement scientifically designed to enable the most efficient typing possible.”  (17)

Could it be that in imagining Nietzsche sitting down for the very first time in front of this new work of Art, the author reminisces about the first time he himself had ever sat down in front of a computer? In contrast to the times, although A PC or A Mac is worlds away from a typewriter, consider that the year Nietzsche received his was 1882. So   Carr,  is, I believe, meaning to convey how similar that  was to his experiences with Computers, laptops, and even smartphones in current times. Before he felt a need to write this book, he had written articles like “Is Google making us stupid?” in a bid to be a rare case of somebody who’s career was in Technology, yet criticizing that very thing that was his bread and butter at the same time. He understands the seduction of game changing technology and the allure of something that can jump start a project or even a career. Yet it now seemed like he was acknowledging the danger of it also.

Even Nietzsche’s close friend Heinrich Koselitz “noticed a change in the style of his writing. Nietzsche’s prose had become tighter, more telegraphic. There a new forcefulness to it.” It leaves questions about the fate of Nietzsche’s work. Would he have become the literary giant that he had become without this Malling Hansen Writing Ball? Would Nicholas Carr have written a book criticizing technology if he hadn’t been educated backwards and forwards on the subject? I think not.  Maybe both Nietzsche and Carr would have created works altogether different without their tools. It reminds me of playing a guitar verses playing a guitar through an amp, with pedals and effects. Sometimes a different tone will inspire a whole different direction, a melody that would not have been thought of by just playing a guitar by itself.

The tone I sense from Carr’s writing is not one of regret, because I think he’s intelligent enough to know that he may have reached new heights partially due to the same technology he is gently criticizing. He presents facts about neuroplasiticity,  how even “during the twentieth century, neuroscientists and psychologists also came to more fully appreciate the astounding complexity of the human brain. Inside our skulls, they discovered, are some 100 billion neurons, which take many different shapes and range in length from a few tenths of a millimeter to A few feet.” His ethos is definitely one of a scientist first and foremost, but one who has an omniscient sense of the cosmos. I feel intuitively that the author is so in awe of human potential that he has decided, at one point, to try and figure out how to strike a delicate balance between the world of technology that he knew so well, and a more natural landscape that he may have felt he and many of his peers had definitely been lacking. In some ways I feel that “The Shallows” could be the instruction book for a 12 step program of Internet addiction. Even though that sounds sarcastic of me, due to the highly addictive nature that often comes with being in this human form, I accept and am grateful to Nicholar Carr for this book, and the message of his which resounds so deeply within me.

This book, and particularly to me, this chapter, succeeds in laying foundations subtly and entertainingly. We are drawn into the stories of Nietzsche, of Scientists, Biologists, and Psychologists discovering insights into the brain and mind that had never been considered before. And than his autobiographical meanderings turn what some could have seen as an anti technology rant into A search for meaning, A nuanced, sensitive journey into striking what may be A perfect prescription for creating balance. He goes back to being a child and watching “Marshall Mcluhan and Norman Mailer” debating on the television, and we follow his own research into neurology, and the possibility of adapting our brains no matter what we previously had gone through. It’s sort of a strange coincidence to me, because I am interested in everything he’s talking about.

 It reminds me of my own theories I came up with upon finding out that the nine mercury cavities in my mouth were dangerous to me, according to a holistic dentist I trusted.  I began A journey of saving up money through delivering pizzas to get them removed. And now, also the attempt to clean the mercury out of my body? How much did that affect my brain? How much harder do I have to work on this paper because of brain fog? How much better would I be at Math and Sciences if I hadn’t been poisoned? On the flip side, maybe the poison tuned me into a creative world where I could madly write poetry and songs for hours on end. And maybe now that I KNOW about neuroplasticity and the brain’s ability to do heavy lifting, I can push myself much harder than I would have if I never felt handicapped from years of   attention deficit disorder, A complete inability to focus, and now the fog finally being lifted. I somehow feel that if my brain had been in perfect working order all those years, I wouldn’t still be attempting a music career, as strange as that seems.

We are on a journey and we all do the best we can. Nicholas Carr became an IT specialist, and then he realized he was spending too much time in front of a computer screen. Through his studies not only of scientists, but of philosophers as varied as Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Descartes, he has finally come to the conclusion, after much doubt, that “A computer, a mere tool, could alter in any deep or lasting way what was going on inside my head.” I believe this is a man who is grateful. He has figured out that gifts have their limits.  And that “The brain- and the mind to which it gives rise- is forever a work in progress.” (38) At the same time, he is not disparaging. He is fortunate, to have been able to discover, amidst his intellectual pursuits, and his career, a philosophy that has positive implications upon the reader.