Own Your Mind
Mein Kopf gehört mir

mein kopf gehoert mir cover
Piper Verlag
March 2018 / 288pp
Non-Fiction

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Sample Translation here
by Caroline Waight

review

Miriam Meckel’s powerful book poses far-reaching questions about the new field of neuro-optimisation and its broader context: the current fashion for self-measurement and self-perfection, as well as the myriad apps and technological innovations that are driving this expansion.

Meckel’s participation in a brain stimulation experiment involving thirty-six hours without sleep prompts her to think deeply about the ideas currently being explored by technology companies. She reveals how various companies are working towards producing a chip that would improve the performance of the human brain. Meckel finds this notion abhorrent, arguing that the manipulation of brainpower amounts to a manipulation of personality – one of the key elements that makes us human. Own Your Mind sets out a philosophical and historical engagement with this notion, taking in centuries of thought on the human conception of the self, and delivers a panoramic view over the centuries.

Meckel’s contribution to this highly topical debate offers a counter to Kevin Kelly’s 2016 book The Inevitable, which argues that we should embrace forthcoming technological changes, including the move towards constant tracking. Own Your Mind is a clarion call for further discussion on this key subject.

about the author

Journalist Miriam Meckel, born in 1967, is the editor of Germany’s leading business magazine WirtschaftsWoche and a professor of communication management at the University of St. Gallen. She is a former government spokeswoman, a bestselling author and an award-winning speaker. Her panel at the W20 in Berlin in April 2017 gained worldwide attention because of her hard-hitting questions to Ivanka Trump.

Previous works:
Next (2011), Brief an mein Leben (2010), Das Glück der Unerreichbarkeit (2007)

rights information

Derechos de traducción disponibles en:
Piper Verlag GmbH (Alemania)
Contacto: Elisabeth Wiedemann
Tel.: +49 893 818 01735
elisabeth.wiedemann@piper.de
www.piper.de/rights/foreign-rights

translation assistance

Applications should be made to the Goethe-Institut.

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