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Knowing yourself now requires the understanding that the conscious you occupies only a small room in the mansion of the brain, and that it has little control over the reality constructed for you.

David Eagleman

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David Eagleman
Age: 53
Born: 1971
Born: April 25
Author
Neuroscientist
Psychologist
Researcher
University Teacher
Albuquerque
New Mexico
David M Eagleman
David Eagleman
Little
Rooms
Control
Mansion
Small
Occupies
Brain
Mansions
Knowing
Constructed
Understanding
Requires
Reality
Conscious
Littles
Room

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This is what consciousness does: it sets the goals, and the rest of the system learns how to meet them.
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Neuroscience over the next 50 years is going to introduce things that are mind-blowing.
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Our internal life and external actions are steered by biological coctails to which we have neither immediate access nor direct acquaintance.
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Modern neuroimaging is like asking an astronaut in the space shuttle to look out the window and judge how America is doing.
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The deep secret of the brain is that not only the spinal cord but the entire central nervous system works this way: internally generated activity is modulated by sensory input. In this view, the difference between being awake and being asleep is merely that the data coming in from the eyes anchors the perception.
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I'm using the afterlife as a backdrop against which to explore the joys and complexities of being human - it turns out that it's a great lens with which to understand what matters to us.
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...you are battered and bruised in the collisions between reminiscence and reality.
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Nothing is inherently tasty or repulsive - it depends on your needs. Deliciousness is simply an index of usefulness.
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All activity in the brain is driven by other activity in the brain, in a vastly complex, interconnected network.
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There are three deaths. The first is when the body ceases to function. The second is when the body is consigned to the grave. The third is that moment, sometime in the future, when your name is spoken for the last time.
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The main thing known about secrets is that keeping them is unhealthy for the brain.
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The missing crowds make you lonely. You begin to complain about all the people you could be meeting. But no one listens or sympathizes with you, because this is precisely what you chose when you were alive.
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There is a looming chasm between what your brain knows and what your mind is capable of accessing.
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Among all the creatures of creation, the gods favor us: We are the only ones who can empathize with their problems.
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If you are a carrier of a particular set of genes, your probability of committing a violent crime goes up by eight hundred and eighty-two percent.
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When the brain activity is kindled in the right spot, people hear voices. If a physician prescribes an anti-epileptic medication, the seizures go away and the voices disappear. Our reality depends on what our biology is up to.
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If you have certain problems with your brain but are raised in a good home, you might turn out okay. If your brain is fine and your home is terrible, you might still turn out fine. But if you have mild brain damage and end up with a bad home life, you're tossing the dice for a very unlucky synergy.
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The majority of human beings live their whole lives unaware that they are only seeing a limited cone of vision at any moment.
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Who you are depends on the sum total of your neurobiology.
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Given the billions of neurons, this means there are as many connections in a single cubic centimeter of brain tissue as there are stars in the Milky Way galaxy.
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