The Brain: A Machine Built of Conflicting Parts

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2011/11/02/David_Eagleman_Will_We_Ever_Understand_the_Brain

According to neuroscientist David Eagleman, the "first misstep" in our understanding of cognition is the idea that the human brain is a unified, cohesive device. "You are not one thing," he says. "People are a multiplicity of different things happening inside the brain."

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As neuroscientists are learning more and more about our body's hidden frontier, we have gained fleeting insights into our own intuition, habits and seemingly unexplainable preferences. Can we solve those mysteries by creating a complete computer model of our brain? Or, is the brain an unsolvable puzzle? Two leading neuroscientists discuss these question and more as we look into the neurology of the brain. - swissnex San Francisco and the California Academy of Sciences

David Eagleman is a neuroscientist and a fiction writer. During the day, he directs the Laboratory for Perception and Action and the Initiative on Neuroscience and Law at Baylor College of Medicine. He is best known for his work on time perception, synesthesia, and neurolaw.

He is a fiction writer. His debut work of fiction, Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, became an international bestseller and is published in 22 languages.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• brain
• science
• neurology
• neuroscience
• neuroscientist
• david
• eagleman
• mind
• consciousness
• unconscious
• subconscious
• biology
• thinking
• thought
• reality
• perception
• cognition
• AI
• artificial
• intelligence
• foratv
• fora.tv
• fora
• tv

[Violent2aShadow]

A majority of myself wanted to dislike this video.......but the minority filibustered.

[b88104044]

simple and accurate, great speech.

[MirageScience]

you are still just 1 person

[MirageScience]

the cake is a lie

[ThomasTrue]

@northernvoxmedia It never ceases to amuse me how many animal rights fanatics will not wear a leather garments, which will have been made from the skin of one single cow (and a by-product of the meat industry), yet happily wear plastic or composite garments - by-products of the petrochemical industry which kills thousands of marine creatures daily and is devastating to extremely sensitive ecological environments. Bunch of hypocrites. And I say that as a former vegan.

[dan91709]

@ucvessel That's because you' were a chipmunk in a previous life? Oh! I see. That explains why you like to go off on your favorite topic regardless of the video content other people are discussing. That makes a lot of sense, Alvin.

You can move along now.

[dan91709]

Society of Mind - a theory of natural intelligence as written and developed by Marvin Minsky.

[volound]

@northernvoxmedia humans > animals, because "we are on top of the food chain"... what?

non-sequitur.

im going to go to become a mad scientist. im then going to breed a race of bulletproof deathclaws and unleash them on humanity. they will rend the shit out of them everywhere and it will be justified because they will be at the top of the food chain and got there by dominating them. time to start man-farms so those deathclaws have nice coats too.

great logic.

(not a veget.)

[volound]

@ucvessel "i consider animals equal to human beings."

on what basis?

im assuming you are not using "animal" in the proper sense. anyway, when do "animals" stop being equal? when theyre no longer primates? no longer mammals? no longer chordates? what about plants? why are you such an animal chauvinist? what about chlorophyll producing sea slugs, and amoeba? theyre animals.

you dont have a reason based position. you just have an irrational this-makes-me-feel-good hippy view.

[james519]

@ArsonistInUrFirewall good point but I think humans do that too sometimes.

[Hjernespreng]

@ucvessel

You get the leather by ripping the skin of animals. So?

I've been to factories that do this. A machine does it, pretty awesome to watch. Oh, and get this: They are DEAD when the machine does it, beheaded even. What are you whining about?

[drshlotzkin]

Actually... Yeah. that's exactly what we need, machines telling us what is cool or not. Or figuring out whether to buy a soda for 99c or $1.09... I mean making decisions and thinking is just too hard to do for humans. All that stress and anxiety of having to choose... Pfft. Who needs that crap... We need to figure out a way for machines to decide for us. Yes, this is totally needed and should have fully funded research.