Everybody knows that moods are infectious. Now, former New York Times science writer Daniel Goleman has explained why. His new book, Social Intelligence, details the neurological processes that help us transmit our moods and other social cues to those around us.

Once believed to be lumps of lonely gray matter cogitating between our ears, our brains turn out to be more like interlooped, Wi-Fi octopi with invisible tentacles slithering in all directions, at every moment, constantly picking up messages we’re not aware of and prompting reactions—including illnesses—in ways never before understood.

“The brain itself is social—that’s the most exciting finding,” Goleman explains during lunch at a restaurant near his home in Massachusetts. “One person’s inner state affects and drives the other person. We’re forming brain-to-brain bridges—a two-way traffic system—all the time. We actually catch each other’s emotions like a cold.”

Obviously the transactions aren’t infallbile: sometimes you’ll send out the “smile” signal and someone will interpret it as “snarl” and go off and invade Iraq instead. But even though this isn’t really news, it underscores the value of community and gives it the cachet of hard science, which one hopes will have a salutary impact on how our physical spaces are designed in the future and how we can make better use of them today. It will prompt medical advances and give psychiatrists and psychologists fresh toys to play with. It will also, no doubt, arouse thundering hordes of marketing experts eager to make use of the new science.

A few months ago I wrote briefly about a social networking technology called “Wifitti,” which allows cell phone users to send text messages through networked servers to big screen displays on site, across town or across country. (You can see it in action here.) The title of the post was “What’s next: Bluetooth brain implants?” Well, maybe so. And maybe those tinfoil hats will be looking a bit more respectable, too.

Meanwhile, I’d like to do my little bit to promote world peace, so please gather friends and family together to view Shonen Knife’s sobering yet uplifting tale of suffering and redemption, “Banana Chips.” This is the Japanese version with no subtitles, but like Kurosawa it really needs no translation.

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