82 books
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"Just started this one. It's good so far. I enjoyed listening to Dan Ariely's talk on it he gave at the James Randi Education Foundation, and I really liked his book Predictably Irrational. I think in the next 50 years Behavioral Economics will become one of the most important fields in science." — Nov 11, 2013 08:30PM
"Just started this one. It's good so far. I enjoyed listening to Dan Ariely's talk on it he gave at the James Randi Education Foundation, and I really liked his book Predictably Irrational. I think in the next 50 years Behavioral Economics will become one of the most important fields in science." — Nov 11, 2013 08:30PM
“Not a single one of the cells that compose you knows who you are, or cares.”
― Sweet Dreams: Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness
― Sweet Dreams: Philosophical Obstacles to a Science of Consciousness
“How can a three-pound mass of jelly that you can hold in your palm imagine angels, contemplate the meaning of infinity, and even question its own place in the cosmos? Especially awe inspiring is the fact that any single brain, including yours, is made up of atoms that were forged in the hearts of countless, far-flung stars billions of years ago. These particles drifted for eons and light-years until gravity and change brought them together here, now. These atoms now form a conglomerate- your brain- that can not only ponder the very stars that gave it birth but can also think about its own ability to think and wonder about its own ability to wonder. With the arrival of humans, it has been said, the universe has suddenly become conscious of itself. This, truly, it the greatest mystery of all.”
― The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human
― The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human
“Some philosophers can't bear to say simple things, like "Suppose a dog bites a man." They feel obliged instead to say, "Suppose a dog d bites a man m at time t," thereby demonstrating their unshakable commitment to logical rigor, even though they don't go on to manipulate any formulae involving d, m, and t.”
― Freedom Evolves
― Freedom Evolves
“We all woke up this morning and we had with it the amazing return of our conscious mind. We recovered minds with a complete sense of self and a complete sense of our own existence — yet we hardly ever pause to consider this wonder.”
― Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain
― Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain
“Moreover, we look in vain to philosophy for the answer to the great riddle. Despite its noble purpose and history, pure philosophy long ago abandoned the foundational questions about human existence. The question itself is a reputation killer. It has become a Gorgon for philosophers, upon whose visage even the best thinkers fear to gaze. They have good reason for their aversion. Most of the history of philosophy consists of failed models of the mind. The field of discourse is strewn with the wreckage of theories of consciousness. After the decline of logical positivism in the middle of the twentieth century, and the attempt of this movement to blend science and logic into a closed system, professional philosophers dispersed in an intellectual diaspora. They emigrated into the more tractable disciplines not yet colonized by science – intellectual history, semantics, logic, foundational mathematics, ethics, theology, and, most lucratively, problems of personal life adjustment.
Philosophers flourish in these various endeavors, but for the time being, at least, and by a process of elimination, the solution of the riddle has been left to science. What science promises, and has already supplied in part, is the following. There is a real creation story of humanity, and one only, and it is not a myth. It is being worked out and tested, and enriched and strengthened, step by step. (9-10)”
― The Social Conquest of Earth
Philosophers flourish in these various endeavors, but for the time being, at least, and by a process of elimination, the solution of the riddle has been left to science. What science promises, and has already supplied in part, is the following. There is a real creation story of humanity, and one only, and it is not a myth. It is being worked out and tested, and enriched and strengthened, step by step. (9-10)”
― The Social Conquest of Earth
Brandon’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Brandon’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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