To the extent that consciousness is useful, it is useful in small quantities, and for very particular kinds of tasks. It's easy to understand why you would not want to be consciously aware of the intricacies of your muscle movement, but this can be less intuitive when applied to your perceptions, thoughts, and beliefs, which are also final products of the activity of billions of nerve cells.
From the Blog
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Breivik's Brain
What could explain Anders Breivik's shooting attack in Oslo, Norway? While this was being debated from the angles of politics, religion, and sociology, I wanted to ask this from the viewpoint of neurobiology.
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Can we produce our brains on other media?
Can we reproduce our brains on other media (say, on computers, or out of beer cans and tennis balls)?
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Discovering amulets inside the mummy
I posted before about my scanning of a 3,000 year old mummy, Neskhons. Now, by analyzing the data in several different ranges of electron density, I've found something unexpected: inside the mummy's torso are 4 small funerary amulets.
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The Brain and the Law
Interested in the intersection of the brain and the legal system? Watch a talk I delivered at the Royal Society for the Arts in London, entitled "The Brain and the Law".
In other news...
Emily Blunt reads for the Sum audio book
Hear the actress Emily Blunt (Young Victoria, Devil Wears Prada) read "The Cast" from Sum. She is one of the dozens of terrific actors who read for the audio book.
Why the Net Matters on BBC Today
Listen to an interview on BBC's Today Programme regarding the new iPad book Why the Net Matters.
Musician Jarvis Cocker reads from Sum
Listen to British rocker Jarvis Cocker read the story "Descent of Species" from Sum. He is one of the dozens of terrific voices who read for the audio book.
