“The self,” Blackmore writes, “is just a fleeting impression that arises with each experience and fades away again. . . . There is no inner self,” she argues, “only multiple parallel processes that give rise to a benign inner delusion—a useful fiction.” She argues that consciousness itself is a fiction.”
― The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness
― The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness
“The problem is we don’t notice the years pass, he thought. Screw the years—we don’t notice things change. We know that things change, we’ve been told since childhood that things change, we’ve witnessed things change ourselves many a time, and yet we’re still utterly incapable of noticing the moment that change comes—or we search for change in all the wrong places.”
― Roadside Picnic
― Roadside Picnic
“Holy Mica, we were true humanists over there, on Earth. Humanism was the backbone of our personalities; in our worship of Man, in our love of Man, we even approached anthropocentrism - and here we are suddenly horrified to catch ourselves thinking, 'Are these really humans? Is it possible they are capable of becoming humans, even with time?'.”
― Hard to Be a God
― Hard to Be a God
“It’s about growth versus decay, activity versus inactivity. The body was designed to be pushed, and in pushing our bodies we push our brains too. Learning and memory evolved in concert with the motor functions that allowed our ancestors to track down food, so as far as our brains are concerned, if we’re not moving, there’s no real need to learn anything.”
― Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain
― Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain
“In order for man to succeed in life, God provided him with two means, education and physical activity. Not separately, one for the soul and the other for the body, but for the two together. With these two means, man can attain perfection. —Plato”
― Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain
― Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain
Mia’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Mia’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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