62 | CHICAGO SUN-TIMES | MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2011 u

RICK TELANDER
rtelander@suntimes.com

This doesn’t compute

Ignoring the battering of our brains — and dismissing the power of machines — makes no sense

B
lows to the head are nothing
new in sport, or life.
I am reminded of the
time I asked Mike Tyson at a news
conference before a fight if he
was concerned about the possible
negative effects from some of the
blows to the head he had received in
his career.
He looked at me as if I were
insane, giggled and said, ‘‘I think
some of the blows to the head I’ve
received have been good for me.’’
Einstein likely felt that way.
Edison, for sure. Moses, too.
But theirs were blows of
enlightenment, ‘‘Eureka!’’ flashes of
perspective and creativity dropped
on them by God or the electric
company.
Physical punches or whacks
that rock the jelly-like human brain
inside its skull casing cause no
enhancement other than bruising,
bleeding and temporary or possibly
permanent damage down the road.
Why is this formula so important
now, particularly as it relates to
popular sports like tackle football?
Two reasons.
First, only recently have
scientists and journalists been able
to put together the research and
information that show conclusively
the dangers of single or repeated
blows, even minor ones, to the
heads of athletes in training and
competition. Before, it was mostly
anecdote, low humor, obfuscation. A bloodied Mike Tyson, taking a punch from Lennox Lewis in 2002, once said some blows to the head “have been good for me.” | LAURA RAUCH~AP
Consider it wasn’t until last year
that the devious and know-nothing no idea. We banned bare-knuckle call it something like ringing a bell. thousand times more powerful to one another, no end in sight.
NFL Mild Traumatic Brain Injury fighting decades ago, but . . . I In our new environment, how can than’’ the best computer at MIT 40 We’ve seen each journey before
Committee was restructured with surrender. anyone allow his or her IQ, or their years ago. — indeed, they’re the same journey,
seemingly authentic and un- Second, we live in a world that children’s, to be lowered? When I think of Muhammad Ali, I the triumph-over-obstacle journey
buyable neurologists at the helm, is progressing into a vast arena always think of a proud, charismatic that humans are hard-wired to love.
and the word ‘‘Mild’’ was dropped in which mankind has never A new way of thinking man who had to surrender his brain Ward/Wahlberg is far more
altogether. lived, never even comprehended, Physical labor is already to get the attention he craved. And dynamic as a person, a recognizable
Mild. Brain injury. Ha. the stadium of human-enhanced disappearing in developed it always makes me sad, even angry. hero, however. But Zuckerberg/
I am reminded here of ‘‘minor’’ computer dominance. It is a place countries. Robots can do that. And It’s ironic, and perfectly Eisenberg is the one who resonates,
surgery, which, of course, is surgery where intelligence, real or artificial, the impoverished. Sports are for illustrative of our schizoid times, who blows your mind — a bland,
on somebody else. will be all. Scientists say that by fun at low levels. Then they’re about that two movies nominated for Best friendless, blank-faced, hyperactive
as early as 2045 there may well be something else — entertainment, Picture in this year’s Oscar race tech weenie as genius winner. I
We better change . . . or else a computer that dwarfs mankind. escapism, wealth, voyeurism even. are ‘‘The Fighter,’’ and ‘‘The Social have never seen anything like his
Once the new knowledge gets By then, according to the current If you think the talk of silicon Network.’’ In the former, brawler onscreen character before. In olden
out there, it is wrong to continue cover story in Time, a computer joining and even replacing ‘‘Irish’’ Micky Ward, played by Mark days he would have been the nerd,
on with certain rituals, even joyous might exist that will surpass ‘‘the the organic mind is nonsense, Wahlberg, uses his brain cells as lost in the rat lab.
ones, that we previously thought brainpower equivalent to that of all remember that your own laptop pawns as he fights his bloody way But the olden days are gone. And
were morally fine. At least we human brains combined.’’ does the work a global library to the championship. In the latter, you can be assured that if the battle
shouldn’t continue them in the same That’s smart. Unless we’re really once did. Consider, as Time points Mark Zuckerberg, played by Jesse between machines and humans ever
way as before. dumb. And we’re not, except when out, that ‘‘your average cell phone Eisenberg, uses his brain cells to becomes confrontational, it won’t be
You can ask me here why hockey we do dumb things, like let our is about a millionth the size of, invent the thing called Facebook, won by fists and forearms, helmets
fighting goes on, and I’ll say I have heads get damaged continually and a millionth the price of and a which connects 600 million people and sticks to our delicate heads.