lmt01's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
12211153's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
aish_aish_baby's review against another edition
4.0
A review from my existential nuclear bunker:
Accessible pop science that was fun to spiral over the reality of reality over.
Not an expert, can’t advice on the science side of things
4 stars for catapulting me into a new level of existential dread (but nothing is real so who cares!)
Ok time to hide from my own brain now!
Accessible pop science that was fun to spiral over the reality of reality over.
Not an expert, can’t advice on the science side of things
4 stars for catapulting me into a new level of existential dread (but nothing is real so who cares!)
Ok time to hide from my own brain now!
alicepomme's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Quick read about the brain. Has a lot of good information and brings you to reflect on yourselfÂ
reginacattus's review against another edition
4.0
Brought up some very interesting concepts of consciousness and will that may be disturbing to some readers...
nicolenikonetz's review against another edition
2.0
The cover of this book is beautiful - and the pages are that thick, heavy sort that just scream quality. Yet what was written on them I found to be a little lacking. Eagleman clearly has a lot of passion for neurobiology and psychology, and references quite a few of his own experiments and what he learned from it. The passages on artificial intelligence were interesting and thought provoking, and the parts on empathy and the need for social interaction were not bad either. It touched quite a surprising amount on philosophy, and not as much on the neurobiology as I was expecting in a book called The Brain.
The main feature that kept me from really enjoying this book was the lack of depth. It bounces around from topic to topic using one or two anecdotes of studies done (mostly ones I learned of in my first year psychology classes) to prove his brief point before brushing the surface of the next issue. It felt rushed in that sense and caused me to not really buy in to what he was saying - not that I don't believe him, but I wanted more information to better understand.
I wanted to know at least a simplified version of the biology that goes into sensory augmentation, syndrome E, levels of consciousness of coma patients, etc. There were many interesting concepts introduced but the lack of exploration into any of them made me feel shortchanged. It's hard to completely buy into the fact that the world has "no colour, there's also no sound . . . Reality is also odorless" outside of our minds because until our mind converts this incoming information (whether it's wavelengths to colour, vibrations to sound, etc) it is just data floating out in a the void of the world. It's a big statement to throw out there and hard to really wrap your head around and agree with without further proof of theory.
Statements like that, as well as his definition of consciousness ("When you're awake you have consciousness, and when you're in deep sleep you don't.") are overly simplistic and not the kind of thing I'm looking for in a $40 book. I understand that there is no assumption of pre-existing knowledge, but that doesn't mean that anyone picking up the book is not eager to learn and does not have the capacity to understand a concept of consciousness more difficult than the one provided.
Our brains are truly amazing, though. Their ability to transform all of this incoming information, make sense of it, and react to our surroundings so quickly it is not even a conscious thought is astounding. The fact that the brain has no direct link to the outer world and relies heavily on this incoming information, is something that Eagleman does not let us forget, thus reminding us every several pages that all of this is happening "sealed within the dark, silent chamber of your skull", " inside the sealed auditorium of the cranium", "is ultimately built in the dark, in a foreign language of electrochemical signals", etc. Reminding us that it is all of the neurons working in concert that allows these great biological feats to be achieved. This got old pretty quickly and felt like a go-to for wrapping up a concept.
Overall, the writing was well done, and maybe I was just looking for something more than this book was offering. I would recommend if you're looking for a headline-type look at the brain without working too much about the details. If you're looking for something thought provoking with evidence backing the theories presented and a response to opposing ideas, then this really isn't quite it. Either way the repetition of certain phrases comes through loud and clear and is for you to decide whether you think that will bother you.
The main feature that kept me from really enjoying this book was the lack of depth. It bounces around from topic to topic using one or two anecdotes of studies done (mostly ones I learned of in my first year psychology classes) to prove his brief point before brushing the surface of the next issue. It felt rushed in that sense and caused me to not really buy in to what he was saying - not that I don't believe him, but I wanted more information to better understand.
I wanted to know at least a simplified version of the biology that goes into sensory augmentation, syndrome E, levels of consciousness of coma patients, etc. There were many interesting concepts introduced but the lack of exploration into any of them made me feel shortchanged. It's hard to completely buy into the fact that the world has "no colour, there's also no sound . . . Reality is also odorless" outside of our minds because until our mind converts this incoming information (whether it's wavelengths to colour, vibrations to sound, etc) it is just data floating out in a the void of the world. It's a big statement to throw out there and hard to really wrap your head around and agree with without further proof of theory.
Statements like that, as well as his definition of consciousness ("When you're awake you have consciousness, and when you're in deep sleep you don't.") are overly simplistic and not the kind of thing I'm looking for in a $40 book. I understand that there is no assumption of pre-existing knowledge, but that doesn't mean that anyone picking up the book is not eager to learn and does not have the capacity to understand a concept of consciousness more difficult than the one provided.
Our brains are truly amazing, though. Their ability to transform all of this incoming information, make sense of it, and react to our surroundings so quickly it is not even a conscious thought is astounding. The fact that the brain has no direct link to the outer world and relies heavily on this incoming information, is something that Eagleman does not let us forget, thus reminding us every several pages that all of this is happening "sealed within the dark, silent chamber of your skull", " inside the sealed auditorium of the cranium", "is ultimately built in the dark, in a foreign language of electrochemical signals", etc. Reminding us that it is all of the neurons working in concert that allows these great biological feats to be achieved. This got old pretty quickly and felt like a go-to for wrapping up a concept.
Overall, the writing was well done, and maybe I was just looking for something more than this book was offering. I would recommend if you're looking for a headline-type look at the brain without working too much about the details. If you're looking for something thought provoking with evidence backing the theories presented and a response to opposing ideas, then this really isn't quite it. Either way the repetition of certain phrases comes through loud and clear and is for you to decide whether you think that will bother you.