Dean Buonomano Quotes

“Complaining that you have a bad memory for names or numbers is a bit like whining about your smartphone functioning poorly underwater.”

“Fear of nuclear energy has made it harder to stand up to dictators and slow down global warming.”

“It is a myth that we only use 10% of our brain, but hyperglots such as Vaughn Smith, who speaks 24 languages, certainly make me feel like I'm only using 10% of mine.”

“The abortion debate is in part a symptom of the human mind's implicit assumption that the mind transcends the brain ('intuitive dualism').”

“The abortion debate seems to be in part a symptom of what has been called intuitive dualism: the hesitancy to accept that the mind (and personhood) is entirely the product of a functioning brain. Neuroscience education should contribute more to the debate.”

“Neuroscientists rarely have to grapple with the issue of presentism versus existentialism. But in practice, neuroscientists are implicitly presentists. They view the past, present, and future as fundamentally distinct, as the brain makes decisions in the present, based on the memories of the past, to enhance our well being in the future. But despite its intuitive appeal, presentism is the underdog theory in physics and philosophy.”

“The objective world simply is, it does not happen. Only to the gaze of my consciousness, crawling upward along the world line of my body, does a section of the world come to life as a fleeting image in space which continuously changes in time.”