Dr Hannah Critchlow is an internationally acclaimed neuroscientist, broadcaster, author, and Fellow at Magdalene College, University of Cambridge.

These are live-blogged notes from a session at NEXT25 in Hamburg. Posts will be improved over the next few days.

We are living in the era of the brain. Thanks to advances in science and technology, we can see ideas and emotions take shape in the brain. But we can also start to inspire a new generation of technologies, based on our own neural networks.

To demonstrate this, Hannah brought Ina on stage, wired up for analysis…

Not waving but thinking

Our brain is 2% of our body mass, but uses 20% of our energy. We have 14 times the number of neural connections in our brain than the number of people on the planet. We — every one of us — use electricity to create speedy signals at 120 miles an hour to allow that energy to help us comprehend the world.

Alpha waves are associated with calm creativity, while Gamma waves are linked to action and movement. The tech to monitor brain waves has existed for over a century. But, of late, scientists have become more interested in how groups of brains work together. When people do something together well, their brain waves become synchronised. Their heart rates align, too. They create something akin to a super-brain. When we create these psychologically aligned super-brains, we learn more effectively. We come up with ideas more easily, and we achieve consensus more quickly.

What can we do to help us synchronise with each other? Looking each other in the eye helps synchronise brain activity. Singing together has the same effect. (And so we all sing “Happy Birthday” to a member of the audience.)

When groups of people get together, dance to gather, hold hands, they become part of a super-brain. They have many more ideas, and they problem-solve more effectively.

How does individual consciousness arise?

Scientists have been examining human DNA for decades. That unique blueprint for life determines not only how our bodies are put together, but also how our brains are created and will function through our lives. And we’re beginning to see how our DNA sequences create a predisposition towards some behaviours: intelligence, resilience, introversion, or extraversion. All of these complex behaviours have a genetic element to them.

But of course, our experiences impact how we see the world, too. For example, we’re used to seeing faces, so we tend to see them in the environment.

Scientists are really interested in the idea that we all have a unique view of the world, shaped by our genetics, our individual experiences, and our shared experiences. What’s the point of us having this resource-intensive organ on the top of our bodies?

Building the human super-brain

One theory is that we are in mid-evolutionary transition from an individual past, to a group, super-brain future. And we are almost compelled to create technology to share ideas around the world. And, maybe, to see the world more accurately. Bringing these voices together should balance out our individual biases to see the world more clearly.

We are not sea squirts. They just float around the ocean. At some point, a sea squirt will attach to a rock. It doesn’t need anyone else — it’s a hermaphrodite. It doesn’t really need to think; it can just eat what’s around it. So, when it’s implanted, it consumes its own nervous system, as it no longer needs it.

We’re the inverse of that. We need to create a super nervous system for the whole species. Traders who are better able to listen to their heart rate, to pick up on environmental information, tend to be more successful. They could think with collective intelligence, and made greater profits during economic downturns.

Listening to your body is listening to the intelligence of the world around you. Experiments with a “closed loop” of people prove what we know: that the people around us impact us. If our neighbours are happy, we are likely to be happier.

The brain and AI

In 2020, a group of MIT scientists were very worried about antibiotic resistance. So, they decided to use AI systems to trawl through a database of 2,000 molecules that were known to have some anti-microbial effect. And then they let this loose on all the molecules certified fit for human consumption. And they found one molecule which had a stronger antibacterial impact than anything we knew, with no existing resistance. We don’t know how it works, but AI found it and created a new reality. Similar efforts are now underway to find new compounds to treat rare diseases.

A study published in 2025 showed that developed countries have less trust in AI, more concerns about privacy, and are less likely to use it. We don’t see it as a panacea. In fact, we’re starting to cherish those human skills that allow us to connect and create that super-brain that allows us to solve problems.