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David Eagleman

David Eagleman Quotes

Neuroscientist

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Famous David Eagleman Quotes

“If you cannot always elicit a straight answer from the unconscious brain, how can you access its knowledge? Sometimes the trick is merely to probe what your gut is telling you. So the next time a friend laments that she cannot decide between two options, tell her the easiest way to solve her problem: flip a coin. She should specify which option belongs to heads and which to tails, and then let the coin fly. The important part is to assess her gut feeling after the coin lands. If she feels a subtle sense of relief at being "told" what to do by the coin, that's the right choice for her.”

IfsWayFeelsShouldTwoImportantSometimesFeelingsProblemChoicesNextAnswersBrainLandSolveAccessTricksUnconsciousReliefGutsSubtleTailsNext TimeCoinsFlipLamentRight ChoicesGut FeelingsTwo Options
Author:David Eagleman
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“If you measure someone's brain and see very little activity during a task, it does not necessarily indicate that they're not trying - it more likely signifies that they have worked hard in the past to burn the programs into the circuitry. Consciousness is called in during the first phase of learning and is excluded from the game playing after it is deep in the system.”

IfsTryingFirstsLittlesDoeHardPastGamesBrainConsciousnessActivityProgramTasksPhasesExcluded
Book:Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain
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“We open our eyes and we think we're seeing the whole world out there. But what has become clear—and really just in the last few centuries—is that when you look at the electro-magnetic spectrum we are seeing less than 1/10 Billionth of the information that's riding on there. So we call that visible light. But everything else passing through our bodies is completely invisible to us. Even though we accept the reality that's presented to us, we're really only seeing a little window of what's happening.”

ThinkingWorldLooksLittlesWholeBodyRealityLightEyeLastsAcceptingClearSeeingCenturyInformationHappeningsWindowInvisibleWhole WorldPassingPassingsVisibleRidingSpectrumMagneticPassing ThroughVisible Light
Author:David Eagleman
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“Societies would _not_ be better off if everyone were like Mr Spock, all rationality and no emotion. Instead, a balance - a teaming up of the internal rivals - is optimal for brains. ... Some balance of the emotional and rational systems is needed, and that balance may already be optimized by natural selection in human brains.”

IfsHumansMayNaturalEmotionBrainEmotionalNeededBalanceRationalInternalsRationalitySelectionBetter OffRivalsNatural SelectionHuman BrainOptimalMr SpockTeaming Up
Book:Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain
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“Our ignorance of the cosmos is too vast to commit to atheism, and yet we know too much to commit to a particular religion. A third position, agnosticism, is often an uninteresting stance in which a person simply questions whether his traditional religious story (say, a man with a beard on a cloud) is true or not true. But with Possibilianism I’m hoping to define a new position - one that emphasizes the exploration of new, unconsidered possibilities. Possibilianism is comfortable holding multiple ideas in mind; it is not interested in committing to any particular story.”

KnowsMenMindPersonsIdeasStoriesReligiousToo MuchAtheismPossibilityPositionIgnoranceParticularComfortableThirdsCloudsCommitTraditionalCosmosExplorationNot InterestedMultipleBeardAgnosticismStanceNew Position
Author:David Eagleman
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