Super Stimulated is about sex, drugs, hormones, happiness, status, social media and food. Eating a whole bag of potato chips isn’t good for us, so why can’t we stop at just one? First there’s the salt, which we all need in small amounts to keep us alive. But our bodies (and mouths) seem to love the crunchy texture, oil, acid, sugar and spices. And that’s exactly how they make them!

Despite our protests and denial, we humans are hairy, sweaty animals with innate urges. Super Stimulated tells the story of how our biological systems, yearnings, addictions and assorted human frailties are recognised and then deliberately exploited.

Humans also have big brains – which make us very intelligent – in turn we have strong social instincts. We’ve invented television shows about groups of people just hanging out together. Our intelligent brain knows it’s ‘pretend people’ on a television screen, but our subconscious mind, powered by social instincts, tends to love tumbling with the drama. This powerful combination – intelligence and social instinct – means we can ‘have great ideas and learn about the world’ then ‘collaborate on making new discoveries and build on each other’s knowledge’. Great when it happens! However, humans in the real world are much more complex; it doesn’t always work out. (If you’ve ever been professionally undervalued or sidelined by your boss, this might resonate.)

Super Stimulated is enlightening, confronting and timely, concluding with the artificial allure of digital overstimulation, especially if our real lives become too difficult to bear. Where’s the ice-cream?

Reviewed by Mark Parry

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nicklas Brendborg is a Danish scientist and author. His international bestseller Jellyfish Age Backwards has been translated to more than 30 languages and was shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize. He is the youngest ever author to have been shortlisted for this award. Brendborg holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in molecular biomedicine and biotechnology from the University of Copenhagen and is now a PhD student in molecular biology.

The second book in his series of popular science books about longevity, Super Stimulated is also being translated across the globe.

Read more about his book.