a brief moment for consciousness
Spurred on by the immense pleasure I took in reading "Proust Was A Neuroscientist" by Jonathon Lehrer, I picked up a couple more books on the subject of neuroscience.
Right now I'm in the thick of "A Universe of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination." Its deeply fascinating. I find myself giggling aloud at some of the insights relayed by the book's two authors. Consider this fun little nugget:
"If we considered the number of possible neural circuits [in the cerebral cortex], we would be dealing with hyperastronomical numbers: 10 followed by at least a million zeroes. (There are 10 followed by 79 zeroes, give or take a few, of particles in the known universe.)"
My faux-poetic translation: The vastness inside your head rivals the vastness of the Universe.
Also, I'm really enjoying reading something so decidedly less pop-science-y. (I mean, Steven Johnson, Bill Bryson, etc is fun but sometimes mindless.)
Right now I'm in the thick of "A Universe of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination." Its deeply fascinating. I find myself giggling aloud at some of the insights relayed by the book's two authors. Consider this fun little nugget:
"If we considered the number of possible neural circuits [in the cerebral cortex], we would be dealing with hyperastronomical numbers: 10 followed by at least a million zeroes. (There are 10 followed by 79 zeroes, give or take a few, of particles in the known universe.)"
My faux-poetic translation: The vastness inside your head rivals the vastness of the Universe.
Also, I'm really enjoying reading something so decidedly less pop-science-y. (I mean, Steven Johnson, Bill Bryson, etc is fun but sometimes mindless.)