bookmate game
David Eagleman

Incognito

Notify me when the book’s added
To read this book, upload an EPUB or FB2 file to Bookmate. How do I upload a book?
If the conscious mindthe part you consider youis just the tip of the iceberg in the brain, what is all the rest doing? In Incognito, neuroscientist David Eagleman plumbs the depths of the subconscious brain to illuminate surprising questions: Why can your foot jump halfway to the brake pedal before you are consciously aware of danger ahead? Why do strippers make more money at certain times of the month, although no one is consciously aware of their fertility level? Is there a true Mel Gibson? What do Odysseus and the subprime mortgage meltdown have in common? How is your brain like a conflicted democracy engaged in civil war? Why are people whose name begins with J more likely to marry other people whose name begins with J? Why is it so difficult to keep a secret? Why did Supreme Court Justice William Douglas deny that he was paralyzed? This subsurface exploration includes diversions into brain damage, drugs, infidelity, synesthesia, criminal law, the future of artificial intelligence, and visual illusionsall highlighting how our perception of the world is a hidden and awe-inspiring construction of the brain.
This book is currently unavailable
383 printed pages
Publication year
2011
Have you already read it? How did you like it?
👍👎

Impressions

  • 洪一萍shared an impression5 years ago
    🔮Hidden Depths

    Biology and brain research has revealed that instead of asking, “What's the best way to solve that problem?” We should ask, “Are there multiple, overlapping ways to solve that problem?”

    Thoughts don't seem like physical things. They don't seem like they exist in a tangible form, but that's exactly what is going on. The physical structure of the brain determines the thoughts that flow from it.

    Consciousness is the smallest player of our mind. Most of our brain operates in a hidden mode.

    When you say, “I just got an idea!” You are actually referencing all sorts of work your brain has been doing behind the scenes for minutes, days, or months.

    There is a concept that a conscious idea is actually a collection of signals your brain picks up that all point in the same direction. Once the signal becomes strong enough, it becomes a conscious thought. If you brain gets a signal that points one way and another pointing a different way, then they sort of cancel one another out. It's like the brain needs enough unconscious votes before it generates a conscious thought.

    I like the concept of your mind as an iceberg. Conscious thought is just the visible tip. Unconscious thought is the mass beneath the water.

    The only way society functions is by groups of people consciously focusing on things. Whether I'm on a plane or not, I never think about pre-flight procedures, how much gas is in the plane, whether the landing gear is working well, and so on. but I don't need to think about those things because someone else is consciously focused on them. This is how we build well-functioning teams and societies. We are all running on autopilot in nearly every area of life, but each of us has the capacity to be consciously focused on a few things. Divide those areas of focus up in smart ways and you get a really effective team.

    The brain is organized like a marketplace, not an assembly line. Even tasks that are historically depicted at a straight line (vision, for example) are actually the result of a network or inputs (vision is impacted not just by light, but also by sounds, etc.). This means that the entire world as you know it is not a simple series of cause and effect relationships. Rather, there are many tiny causes that build into some final effect. There are many bits of information that impact vision.

    People tend to love reflections of themselves in others and on products. This is called “implicit egotism.” We like people who share our birthdays, have names similar to our, and so on.

    Humans have an incredible ability to learn and, with enough practice, mindlessly automate almost any skill.
    The mere exposure effect proves that our brains tend to like things that we are exposed to often. Similarly, we tend to associate two things with one another if we hear that pairing often. (This reminds me of people who say they have “great networks” over and over. Eventually, you associate the two things together and you're like “That guy is a great networker! He has tons of amazing contacts.” Mere exposure effect at work — and with hustle on that guys part it can become a reality too.)

    The conscious mind is not the one driving the boat.

    The personalities we think of as ourselves are time averaged versions of our neurobiology.

  • Kelvin Tjiawishared an impression4 years ago
    👍Worth reading
    🔮Hidden Depths

Quotes

  • Vasily Betinhas quoted8 years ago
    “There’s someone in my head, but it’s not me.”
  • Olga Krutskohas quoted4 years ago
    Our brains run mostly on autopilot, and the conscious mind has little access to the giant and mysterious factory that runs below it.
  • Olga Krutskohas quoted4 years ago
    The first thing we learn from studying our own circuitry is a simple lesson: most of what we do and think and feel is not under our conscious control. The vast jungles of neurons operate their own programs.

On the bookshelves

fb2epub
Drag & drop your files (not more than 5 at once)