When you text while you drive, you can’t be watch the road all the time. And that’s a problem when you encounter other people. A Utah college student found that out when he hit and killed two rocket scientists while texting on a drive through the Rocky Mountains.
On this edition of Up to Date, Steve Kraske is joined by University of Kansas researcher Paul Atchley who specializes in dual tasking and the effect technology has on the human brain. Joining them is New York Times reporter Matt Richtel, who tells the story of that Utah college student from the accident through the court case in his new book, A Deadly Wandering: A Tale of Tragedy and Redemption in the Age of Attention. Together they look at whether technology is outpacing our capacity to absorb it and if it is capable of hijacking our brains.
