Merryn Somerset Webb

We talk about, is there a data center bubble?

We talk about how it's going to take everyone's jobs.

We talk about how it will reshape the economy.

And while there are occasional conversations about how it might actually reshape our brains and even our consciousness, that is not people's focus.

And actually, the truth is, it's probably the most important thing of all.

It's an awful lot more important than the valuations of AI companies and AI adjacent companies, right?

What's happening in your head.

So let's talk about how you started thinking about that.

Tom, in the beginning of your paper, you talk about how our brains literally rewired when we learned to read.

So you say 200 years ago, so only about 12% of the world's adults could read.

Today, it's about 87%.

And we all look at that and we go, well, this is all about education.

And that's amazing because it leads to different lives, leads to democracy, etc., etc., all these things.

But it wasn't really just about that.

It was about our brains rewiring.

And I'm really interested in this bit because I actually got some rouse on social media about this recently.

About whether if you read very fast, which I do, that...

affects your ability to recognize faces because it's the same part of the brain.

And what you say here is that the connection between the hemispheres thickened.

I'm not quite sure what that means.