Smartphones Are Making the World a Smarter Place

Imagine millions of people worldwide all contributing to a larger common goal: curing AIDS, or increasing specieswide intelligence. If this sounds like a utopian fantasy, rest assured that it’s very real and happening today on a nearby screen.

By enjoying a game on your phone, you could be playing a part in a global effort to make the world a brighter place.

The idea is far from new. For all the complaints about technology rotting minds, rapid technological innovations in the past few years have made it possible for researchers to harness the power of the internet, with its access to millions of mind at leisure. Scientists can now tackle much larger projects in much less time. Lumosity has already been plumbing this valuable data source, and it’s not the only one to do so.

Consider Foldit, which makes an unlikely game out of folding amino acids into 3D protein structures—a yawn-worthy topic for most non-scientists. By transforming protein structure discovery into a game—the so-called process of “gamefication”—Foldit’s many human players churn out groundbreaking findings that even advanced computer programs struggled with. The data that Foldit generates contributes towards efforts to cure AIDS, cancer, and Alzheimers.

More recently, the Science XL App was developed by an international team of psychologists to gather human behavior data on a new scale. Where Foldit helped speed up research that was nevertheless possible with current technology, Science XL gave gave psychologists access to human behavior data on a scale impossible through any other traditional channel. Dr Stephan Dufau, head of the team behind Science XL, touts the power of smartphones to “reliably collect culturally diverse data on a vast scale, permitting direct tests of the universality of cognitive theories.” That’s precisely what Lumosity has been doing, both on your computer and on your smartphone.

Lumosity has the largest database on human cognition in the world, with over 300 million data points and 15 million web users. We’re perfectly poised to use the internet to our advantage, and our mobile Brain Trainer app represents yet another step forward in the effort to collect the most varied and comprehensive data on human behavior possible. By adapting some of our web games to the smartphone format, we ensure that brain exercises are accessible through any internet-connected device, tapping into the intervals of leisure time that people experience throughout a day.

We then turn around and use that data to continually improve the Lumosity experience for people from all demographics. Now you can join the effort at home and on the go. Lumosity.com subscribers get unlimited access to both the site and Brain Trainer. Train on both platforms to hone your mind and contribute towards a global scientific effort!