What Makes the Human Mind Unique?

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People think that their brain is like an iPhone — if they can just unlock it and press a few things in a certain order, then something is sure to happen. That's just not the case, as neuroscientist David Eagleman tells us. While some swear a cold shower helps them think better it's simply a matter of personal preference; what works for one might not work for anyone else. David has a great line: "You don’t have squirrels going to the moon or dogs inventing the internet or cows doing theater plays for one another or any of the gazillion things that we do." Quite frankly, what gets creatvity going the best is actually the most boring: a good diet and regular exercise... but where's the fun (and clickable headline) in that? David's new book is The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World.

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DAVID EAGLEMAN

David Eagleman is a neuroscientist and a New York Times bestselling author. He directs the Laboratory for Perception and Action at the Baylor College of Medicine, where he also directs the Initiative on Neuroscience and Law. He is best known for his work on time perception, brain plasticity, synesthesia, and neurolaw.

He is the writer and presenter of the PBS epic series, The Brain with David Eagleman, and the author of the companion book, The Brain: The Story of You.

Beyond his 100+ academic publications, he has published many popular books. His bestselling book Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain, explores the neuroscience "under the hood" of the conscious mind: all the aspects of neural function to which we have no awareness or access. His work of fiction, SUM, is an international bestseller published in 28 languages and turned into two operas. Why the Net Matters examines what the advent of the internet means on the timescale of civilizations. The award-winning Wednesday is Indigo Blue explores the neurological condition of synesthesia, in which the senses are blended.

Eagleman is a TED speaker, a Guggenheim Fellow, a winner of the McGovern Award for Excellence in Biomedical Communication, a Next Generation Texas Fellow, Vice-Chair on the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Neuroscience & Behaviour, a research fellow in the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies, Chief Scientific Advisor for the Mind Science Foundation, and a board member of The Long Now Foundation. He has served as an academic editor for several scientific journals. He was named Science Educator of the Year by the Society for Neuroscience, and was featured as one of the Brightest Idea Guys by Italy's Style magazine.  He is founder of the company BrainCheck and the cofounder of the company NeoSensory.  He was the scientific advisor for the television drama Perception, and has been profiled on the Colbert Report, NOVA Science Now, the New Yorker, CNN's Next List, and many other venues. He appears regularly on radio and television to discuss literature and science.

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TRANSCRIPT:

David Eagleman: There are many books that exist on creativity and it’s about, “hey, do this,” “take a hot shower” or “take a long walk in nature,” “be in a pink room,” or something.

What my coauthor Anthony Brandt and I really strove to do here was to figure out what is below all of that.

What is the basic cognitive software that’s running in the human brain that takes ideas in and smooshes them up and crunches them—and it’s like a food processor that’s constantly spitting out new ideas.

The key is that humans are really different from one another, and for one person taking a hot shower might work and for another person a cold shower. One person works well in the morning and another person at night. For one writer they should go and sit in the coffee shop where it’s loud, and for another writer, it works better for them to sit alone in their quiet office and write.

So I suspect there’s no single piece of advice that’s going to apply to everyone, and that was our—that’s what we wanted to avoid, was that sort of thing.

Instead, we’re trying to understand what is it that’s special about the human brain that allows creativity to happen?

Because when you look at us compared to all the other species on the Earth—we have very similar brains. I mean, you know, obviously we’re cousins with our nearest neighbors and all throughout the animal kingdom, it’s a continuous family tree.

But there's this one species that has gon...

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