The Self Illusion

An underdeveloped theory of mind in children also explains why they can make such bad liars. Initially, when a child realizes that punishment is imminent – ‘Did you eat the cake?’ – they simply say no, despite the fact that they have chocolate cake smeared across their face. Only later do children get more sophisticated in generating plausible stories for why they might have the tell-tale chocolate on their face – invariably they blame someone else.

Those that control eye movement have evolved simply to direct your gaze to the darkest and brightest objects in the world.

Deep in the history of our species, we behaved in this automatic way but eventually we evolved higher levels of brain machinery that enabled us to control these reptilian urges.

Arising out of the midbrain is the limbic system, a network that controls emotions and drives such as aggression and sex. This has been called the ‘reptilian brain’ because it controls the sorts of functions we share with lizards and snakes.

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

It can do several tasks simultaneously using the same neurons

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.

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,

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.

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.