- Kaku is a theoretical physicist but believes his unique perspective can help enrich the field of neuroscience
- Believes that neuroscience began once Phineas Gage got a spike thorough his brain and changed personalities. First time damage to the brain had been linked with changes in behavior
- Speaks of the exciting things to come such as thought controlled exoskeletons for paraplegics and being able to upload your memories and consciousness
- Argues that we can never explain consciousness because an object cannot know itself
- Consciousness is a mental model of the world which uses many feedback loops with different parameters (sight, sound, etc) with the goal of surviving and thriving. Animals create a model of the world (space) but humans do it with space/time in order to plan into the future
- EEG, PET scan, TES, deep brain stimulation and optogenetics have all been and will continue to be extremely informative tests to help understand, map and analyze the brain
- The purpose of memory is to help predict the future
- Memories are not stored in one area or chronologically. They are encoded in many different areas and when we recall them they must be reassembled
What I got out of it
- An exciting and eye opening account of current beliefs and tests on the brain. The potential technology and applications is fascinating and also a bit daunting. Good read if you are interesting in how the brain works and some possible almost science-fiction brain-based applications