I missed Martin Robbins' Guardian review of Mind Change, Susan Greenfield's latest book, but it's quite something. Granted, I shouldn't be surprised, since Robbins' review of Greenfield's novel was titled "Old People Need to Stop Telling Us That the Internet Is Ruining the World" and after that got really critical. A description of the daramtis personae concludes
None of this really matters, for within a few chapters it becomes painfully obvious that Susan Greenfield’s book is little more than a fan-fiction about Susan Greenfield. The narrators are lifeless caricatures devoid of any real voice or personality of their own, and seem to exist solely for the purpose of regurgitating Greenfield’s theories over endless pages of mind-numbingly tedious exposition.
In this case, Robbins' critique comes down this:
You can’t argue against Greenfield’s ideas because when you boil away all the conjecture, the unanswered questions, the innuendo, what’s left is … nothing much.
It’s not that the topic isn’t worth talking about. The world is changing, and our brains are adapting to that new world. Good analysis and research looking at the co-evolution of mind and society can only be a good thing. The problem is that Greenfield adds absolutely nothing to this debate.