Visual Cortex Is Fundamentally A Machine Whose

Even While It's True That We Are Tied To Our Molecules And Proteins And Neurons - As Strokes And Hormones And Drugs And Microorganisms Indisputably Tell Us - It Does Not Logically Follow That Humans Are Best Described Only As Pieces And Parts.

The Conscious Mind Is Not At The Center Of The Action In The Brain; Instead, It Is Far Out On A Distant Edge, Hearing But Whispers Of The Activity.

Reductionism Is Not The Right Viewpoint For Everything, And It Certainly Won't Explain The Relationship Between The Brain And The Mind. This Is Because Of A Feature Known As Emergence. When You Put Together Large Numbers Of Pieces And Parts, The Whole Can Become Something Greater Than The Sum.

If An Epileptic Seizure Is Focused In A Particular Sweet Spot In The Temporal Lobe, A Person Won´t Have Motor Seizures, But Instead Something More Subtle. The Effect Is Something Like A Cognitive Seizure, Marked By Changes Of Personality, Hyperreligiosity (an Obsession With Religion And Feelings Of Religious Certainity), Hypergraphia (extensive Writing On A Subject, Usually About Religion), The False Sense Of An External Presence, And, Often, The Hearing Voices That Are Attributed To A God. Some Fraction Of History´s Prophets, Martyrs, And Leaders Appear To Have Had Temporal Lobe Epilepsy.

If You Ever Feel Lazy Or Dull, Take Heart: You're The Busiest, Brightest Thing On The Planet.