The True Creator of Everything: How the Human Brain Shaped the Universe as We Know It

Description

A radically new cosmological view from a groundbreaking neuroscientist placing the human brain at the center of humanity’s universe Renowned neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis introduces readers to a revolutionary new theory of how the human brain evolved to become an organic computer without rival in the known universe. Nicolelis undertakes the first attempt to explain the entirety of human history, culture, and civilization based on a series of recently uncovered key principles of brain function. This new cosmology is centered around three fundamental properties of the human brain: its insurmountable malleability to adapt and learn; its exquisite ability to allow multiple individuals to synchronize their minds around a task, goal, or belief; and its incomparable capacity for abstraction. Combining insights from such diverse fields as neuroscience, mathematics, evolution, computer science, physics, history, art, and philosophy, Nicolelis presents a neurobiologically based manifesto for the uniqueness of the human mind and a cautionary tale of the threats that technology poses to present and future generations. The True Creator of Everything: How the Human Brain Shaped the Universe As We Know It Contents Preface Acknowledgments 1 In the Beginning... 2 The True Creator of Everything Makes Its Evolutionary Entrance 3 Information and the Brain: A Bit of Shannon, a Handful of Gödel 4 Fueling the Brain with Dynamics: Biological Solenoids and Functional Principles 5 The Relativistic Brain Theory: It All Comes Down to One Picotesla of Magnetic Power 6 Why the True Creator Is Not a Turing Machine 7 Brainets: Coupling Brains to Generate Social Behaviors 8 The Case for a Braincentric Cosmology 9 Building a Universe with Space, Time, and Mathematics 10 The True Origins of the Mathematical Description of the Universe 11 How Mental Abstractions, Information Viruses, and Hyperconnectivity Create Deadly Brainets, Schools of Thought, and the Zeitgeist 12 How Our Addiction to Digital Logic Is Changing Our Brains 13 Self-Annihilation or Immortality? The Ultimate Choice of the True Creator of Everything Epilogue Bibliography Index