Familiarly known as our sense organs, these tools only detect a small fraction of what’s out there and our brain’s job is to fill in any gaps, creating the illusion of a full, all-encompassing experience. No matter how solid and consistent the world around us appears to be, our perception of it is entirely based on the tools that we have to perceive it. As Eagleman and many others have explored brain function in greater and greater detail, it has recently become clear that seemingly straightforward questions of identity, reality, control, decision making and socialization are much more complicated than was previously thought. He tells all about it in his book The Brain, a companion to his PBS series of the same name.Ī neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine, Eagleman presents six chapters, each one focusing on different curiosities of brain function. While it’s probably silly to speculate, maybe David Eagleman will be the name school kids will hear in future centuries when they learn about the neuroscientific revolution of the early 21 st century. We’re living through another revolution today that has just started to reveal that we’re not in control of our minds. Similarly, in 1859 Charles Darwin spawned controversy when he relegated humans to a single ordinary twig on the tree of life. In 1543 Nicolaus Copernicus started a revolution that removed the Earth from the center of the universe. Every once in a while, humanity’s view of the world gets turned completely upside down.

The brain by david eagleman book