Harnessing the brain for good

I saw a segment of the show 60 Minutes called Harnessing The Power of the Brain in my neuropsych class this week-you should check this out if you have a chance. It is absolutely amazing what we can do with science today. In sum the piece was about neuroscientific research that has figured out ways to connect a person's brain to a computer through electordes so that a person can think something and the computer makes the thing happen (it's a bit more complicated than that...but there is now technology that allows you to use your thoughts to make things happen). This is, in a word, amazing. I watched this 12 minutes story in awe for about 10 minutes until it struck me. We (i.e. man kind) can use science and technology to do the most amazing things and yet we (man kind) can't find a way to do the most basic tasks of recycling, reducing and reusing on a daily basis. We have reached extremes in scientific discovery and yet most people can't even find it in themselves to recycle a plastic water bottle when they are done with it!? Where is the disconnect-where did we go wrong? All of the amazingness we have created will be for naught when we have decimated this planet and we have been choked out by a sea of plastic.
It just goes to show everything looks different, even a 12 minute piece on 60 minutes, when you look at the world through the lens of the plastic diet. We need more people to put on these plastic diet glasses.