“Since the universe must contain millions of appropriate planets, consciousness in some form - but not with the paired eyes and limbs, and the brain built of neurons in the only example we know - may evolve frequently. But if only one origin of life in a million ever leads to consciousness, then Martian bacteria most emphatically do not imply Little Green Men.” IfsKnowsMenMayLittlesEyeFormUniverseBrainConsciousnessMillionsExamplePlanetsBuiltGreenEvolveAppropriateLimbsNeuronsBacteriaOrigin Of LifeMartians Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History Source: Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms: Essays on Natural History
“I think the celebrity author trend reflects, at least in part, the growing influence of marketing departments at publishing companies. The emphasis becomes on the easy sell, as opposed to finding the best quality and writing and illustrating. There are exceptions (I like John Lithgow's stuff, for example), but a lot of it is putrid, and the best of it is often ghostwritten. Save the ink. Save the trees. Save our brain cells.” ThinkingWritingEasyStuffBrainQualityCompanyGrowingTreeInfluenceExampleFindingsSellsMarketingCellsDepartmentExceptionTrendsPublishingEmphasisInkBrain CellsIllustrating Author:Jabari Asim
“The feeling of an unbridgeable gulf between consciousness and brain-process:When does this feeling occur in the present case?It is when I (for example) turn my attention in a particular way on to my own consciousness, and, astonished, say to myself: THIS is supposed to be produced by a process in the brain!--as it were clutching my forehead.” WayDoeSelfFeelingsTurnsProcessMy OwnAttentionBrainConsciousnessCasesExampleParticularSupposed To BeSelf ConsciousForeheadsSelf Consciousness Author:Ludwig Wittgenstein
“As if to demonstrate, by a striking example, the impossibility of erecting any cerebral barrier between man and the apes, Nature has provided us, in the latter animals, with an almost complete series of gradations from brains little higher than that of a Rodent, to brains little lower than that of Man.” IfsMenLittlesAnimalBrainExampleHigherSeriesLatterBarriersImpossibilityApesCerebralRodents Book:Man's Place in Nature Source: Man's Place in Nature
“Our physical senses and our embodied brains allow us to perceive only a small fraction of reality. We cannot see microbes or untraviolet light, for example. We can hear only a small range of sounds. When we try to describe the otherworld of energies and spirits, we are limited not only by our bodily constraints but by the expectations, assumptions, and language patterns ingrained in us by the culture we were raised in.” TryingRealityLightSpiritCultureEnergyLanguageSoundBrainExampleExpectationsRaisedPatternsSensesRangePerceiveAssumptionConstraintsPaganismFractionsMicrobes Author:Starhawk
“The different political systems, religions and social habits demonstrate that the same brain can be tuned in different manners. But the tuning capacity is limited. We can never feel as a jaguar, for example. We can imagine a man who believes or who intends to be a jaguar, but to intend is not the same as to be. We can have other ideologies, but we will continue restricted by the nature of our brain and of our body.” MenFeelsBelieveDifferentBodyPoliticalSocialBrainImagineExampleHabitCapacityIdeologyMannersPolitical SystemsTuningJaguars Author:Rodolfo Llinas
“You might argue that my example is bad because Einstein is dead. But according to physicist Erwin Schrodinger, Einstein is neither dead nor alive until we dig him up and open the casket. If he's alive, he might want his brain back, which I understand is in a Ziplock bag in some guy's freezer. And this is a perfect example of why examples always distract from the main point.” IfsWantMightDeathGuyPerfectBrainAliveExampleSuicideArguingBagsPhysicistCasketsFreezerSchrodinger Author:Scott Adams
“We live in a world that is dominated by science. And that's not a bad thing - not at all. But one of the problems with the scientific worldview is that it leads human beings to have an overwhelmingly theoretical relationship to the world. For example, I no longer accept my being in the world practically and then try to describe that or elucidate that; rather, I see the world theoretically as colors and objects and representations which are fed through my retina into the brain.” WorldTryingHumansProblemHuman BeingsBrainAcceptingExampleObjectsColorFedsBad ThingsRepresentationTheoreticalWorldview Author:Simon Critchley
“And your brain doesn't naturally know how to think the way Zeckhauser knows how to play bridge. "for example," people do not react symmetrically to loss and gain. Well maybe a great bridge player like Zeckhauser does, but that's a trained response. Ordinary people, subconsciously affected by their inborn tendencies.” PeopleThinkingKnowsWayWellsDoePlayLossBrainKnow HowPlayerExampleOrdinaryGainsResponseTendenciesBridgesAffectedOrdinary People Author:Charlie Munger
“I don't know what to say about Asians. I think everyone is "racist," to differing degrees, in that everyone's brain will automatically associate information with other information, based on the information they are looking at (for example skin color, bone structure), but I think focusing on race in any manner that isn't neutral or self-aware probably increases racism.” ThinkingKnowsSelfRaceBrainInformationExampleColorDegreesRacismSkinsIncreaseStructureBonesRacistAssociatesSkin Color Author:Tao Lin
“There are ways in which you can make that distinction objective to a certain degree. For example, by looking at responses that could be generated in the brain to exactly the same stimulus and there could be differences there.” WayCertainDifferencesBrainExampleDegreesResponseObjectivesDistinctionStimulus Author:Antonio Damasio
“It's amazing how flexible the human mind is in terms of jumping into a backstory or an aside. Vonnegut is a great example - it's not a linear story by any means, but somehow your brain is keeping it moving in one direction even though the story is taking you in all these different directions.” MindHumansMeanDifferentStoriesMovingTermBrainExampleHuman MindJumpingFlexibleLinearOne DirectionMoving InDifferent Directions Author:Noah Hawley
“At the level of the mind, you are part of the human mind; at the level of the brain you are part of the global brain. This is a perfect example of becoming the change that you want to see.” WantMindHumansPerfectLevelsBrainExampleBecomingHuman Mind Author:Deepak Chopra
“For most of the rise of modern medicine, the brain was a really unknown zone and was all based in guesswork. Well, that's all changing. And the opioid recovery is a very good example of the scale of change we're seeing.” WellsBrainSeeingModernExampleMedicineVery GoodScalesRecoveryZoneGood ExamplesModern MedicineGuessworkOpioids Author:Newt Gingrich