Bruce Hood

Our brain constructs models of the external world. It can weave experiences into a coherent story that enables us to interpret and predict what we should do next. Our brain simulates the world in order to survive in it.

We don’t have sufficient information, time or resources to work it all out accurately so we make educated guesses to build our models of reality.

Who we are is a story of our self – a constructed narrative that our brain creates.

Holding another’s brain in your hands for the first time is the closest to a spiritual experience I have ever had. It makes you feel humble and mortal at the same time.

complexity can emerge if you have enough simple elements communicating with each other.

This binary code is the foundation for every modern computer language. It is also the same principle operating in every living organism that has a nervous system.

He showed that if you connect up a large number of simple switches that could be either ‘on’ or ‘off’, then you can create a binary code,

He proved that any pattern, no matter how complicated, could be broken down into a series of on and off states distributed across a network.

It can do several tasks simultaneously using the same neurons

Everything you experience is processed into patterns of neural activity that form your mental life. You are living in your own Matrix.