Reddit reviews Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

That is nonsense, of course intoxicants can turn non-rapists into rapists. Your social behaviour is determined by your prefrontal cortex. Interfere with it and your behaviour changes. And there are enough intoxicants that do to different degrees. Even brain tumors can "change who you are" drastically and f.i. turn peaceful people into uncontrollable, aggressive people.

Alcohol is known to lower repression and increase agressive behaviour for many people, i.e. people that are able to control themselves subconsciously to not hurt other people may lose this ability if intoxicated.

http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa38.htm

I can really recommend this book about the brain: http://www.amazon.com/Incognito-The-Secret-Lives-Brain/dp/0307389928
It is easy to read and very, very informative.

Just a few things that come to mind:

Self-Awareness> There are a lot of ways to work on this and most of them are worth trying. An effective goal might be to find some things that work for awhile, and prepare yourself to seek out other options when those don’t offer the same effectiveness. I’m pretty sure that when we dedicate the time to it, we provide ourselves with information that empowers us to make the decisions that bring about our idea of success.

Expectations> Most of us don’t want to fail. A lot of us feel like if we don’t meet the expectations that we’ve set for ourselves then we’re failures. This often causes some of us to avoid things that we feel we won’t “succeed” at. Hey, I’m not saying we shouldn’t set high goals for ourselves... but when we don't meet our expectations, maybe we could slowly get better at treating ourselves with the kind of love and encouragement that we would extend to our most loved of loved ones when they "fail."

Exercise> God damn it I hate exercise. I wore a button in fifth grade that said: I’m too out of shape to exercise. I’m thirty-nine now and I’ve still never had a consistent workout regimen. For a lot of us, this shit is probably harder than everything else we’ll consider in this thread. But there’s plenty of evidence to show that when the rest of our body is functioning at a more optimal level that we have more tools to work with, and that our tools are more effective. I hate exercise.

Group Discussion> Last year I attended an intensive outpatient group therapy program. This was my first experience with group therapy and I freaking love that shit. I learned that the gems to mine from this experience have very little to do with whoever is leading the group or which organization is providing the facility... as long as you feel like everyone is given the opportunity to share without reproach. Empathy is what it’s all about. The more courageous you are about sharing your struggles, the more empowered your fellow group members will be to do the same. When empathy is flowing freely most people are able to recognize some of their own cognitive distortions, AND help others find their own. Not every group is going to function well, but I think it’s well worth the effort to find on that does. You might start with looking into a DBSA group near you. My advice would be to look for one with 10-15 attendees. If you've got insurance that will cover it, you might check into an Intensive Outpatient Group Therapy program offered by a local hospital.

Books> These are just a few that have offered me some help—and a few that I just acquired but haven’t read yet.

Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

Tribe of Mentors: Short Life Advice from the Best in the World

Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy



Also, this is me patting you on the back lovingly and then turning it into a hug:



Did you feel it?



Disclaimer: I’m currently doing pretty poorly at all of these things.

There's a book called about neuroscience called Incognito that has a few chapters on all the crazy stuff your brain does to turn visual input into useful information. Highly recommended for anyone wishing to learn more about how their own brain works.

I've read some of them. Those that I read are indeed good.

However, in the context of deciding to be better, I'd recommend to drop Pinker's "Blank Slate". It's a good book, but it's mostly about an academic and political debate. If you already accept that genes affect the mind, there's a better way to spend your time.

I'd also recommend to replace Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow", and Ariely's "Predictably Irrational" with "The invisible Gorilla" by Charbis and Simmons. The latter book covers a similar ground to the first two, but it does so with less personal anecdotes.

I'd also recommend to replace the books from Oliver Sacks with Eagleman's "Incognito. The Secret Lives of the Brain." Eagleman is also funny, he covers similar ground, but his book is a bit more systematic.

> But what is happening when I am given two choices, and I struggle to make a decision

But you didn't choose to be given the two choices.

There's an unimaginably long causal stream of events leading to your choice which was never under your control, so at the very least it seems that even if we could call that free will, it's not nearly as significant/powerful an ability as we normally think.

In the criminal examples, even if a stereotypical "bad guy" can be said conclusively to have "chosen" an antisocial action, they didn't choose the genetics or environmental effects that lead their brain to prefer the antisocial option.

EDIT: In my mind, I think the Free Will Debate, is pretty similar to the God Debate. To quote Neil DeGrasse Tyson "If that's how you wanna invoke your evidence for god, then god is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance, thats getting smaller, smaller and smaller as time goes moves on." Similarly, it would seem that almost every single finding in the fields of neuroscience and psychology and psychiatry have gone to show just how little we're in control of our own actions. To just observe the general trend, we seem to be accumulating an abundance of evidence to support one side of this argument, and the other side has to continue to point to the "ever receding" dark corner of ignorance in the room to try to support their side. David Eagleman has a chapter in his book Incognito about this where he talks about the "dethronement of man" as a general trend in scientific discovery.

The author of this article wrote an excellent book that goes in depth on these stories and others called Incognito. The whole book examines our limited ability to process perceptions and was a thoroughly engaging and heady read.

Although it wasn't overly complex, I thought Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman was really an enjoyable read.

There were a few times that it got a slight preachy, but I found myself setting it down and having a little chuckle at just how fascinated I was.

http://www.amazon.com/Incognito-The-Secret-Lives-Brain/dp/0307389928

i love that story he/she made, and have read almost all of the source material he/she cited! I liked the fact that the story was almost entirely free of speculation of society/culture (beyond augmented employers wanting augmented employees). By sticking to the philosophical quandary itself, it was very believable and understandable as a "how we get there" story. To know more about human "consciousness" and what we call free will, I'd suggest reading Incognito, by David Eagleman.

Another quote about the singularity I enjoy is by Justin B. Rye:

>"As I see it, the main problem in designing a plausible 23rd century these days isn't lack of grandeur, it's the imminence of changes so fundamental and unpredictable they're likely to make the dramas of 2298 as unintelligible to us as the Microsoft Anti-Trust Suit would be to Joan of Arc."

And just to keep away the near-religious fervor that begins to brew up inside of my optimistic brain, i tend to either imagine scenarios of how the Singularity could be a bad thing (I love drawing and writing), and watch Bruce Sterling's "Your Future as a Black Hole".

Remember to keep your cautiously optimistic wits about you on this subject!

Everyone should read his book Incognito. It's really amazing.

To suggest further reading, Dr Brian Eagleman, the Director of the Initiative on Neuroscience and Law at Baylor College of Medicine, studies this issue explicitly. His recent book Incognito has a chapter on neuroscience and law, in which he discusses how many crimes can be an extension of mental illness and our concept of justice evolves with our understanding of brain function. It's a good read.

Incognito by David Eagleman

You are. God, didn't you read Incognito?

I highly recommend David Eagleman's book: Incognito; the secret lives of the brain.

it explores the differences between our conscious mind and the unconscious.

I'm not sure what you are asking. But it sounds like you want some books you could write an essay on. Information based, not fiction. Does that rule out philosophy?

Here's a couple i really like:

The Law by Frederic Bastiat

https://mises.org/books/thelaw.pdf

I used that book as a reference for almost every paper I wrote in college, along with the constitution. Especially when the topic was should such and such be legal, or should we pass a law to do X.

The second is Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman.

http://www.amazon.com/Incognito-The-Secret-Lives-Brain/dp/0307389928

Its very eye opening. It really changed the way I viewed free will and the brain. I'm a lot less judgmental after reading this book. It involves how the brain works, and how we make choices. It really focuses on examples where brain process go wrong due to illness or disease. It would be the non fiction book i'd write an essay on if someone made me write an essay.

Your brain edits FAR more out than just minute vibrations. It essentially builds a customized representation of what is 'out there'. The image you 'see' isn't the photons of light entering your eye - those are just the triggers that set off the neural pathways running to the visual centers of your brain. Those centers do an enormous amount of processing and eventually settle on an 'image' in the conscious areas of the cortex that you perceive as reality, even though it isn't really.

For an interesting read, grab a copy of Incognito: the Secret Lives of the Brain by neuroscientist David Eagleman. It's a real eye opener.

Happy to share.

If you find this stuff interesting, I really do recommend the book I linked below. Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain is a fascinating pop neuro book. Dr. Eagleman basically runs through a number of the different ways people have gotten fucked over by their brain causing them to do things outside of the control the average layperson would consider us to have. And unfortunately while he never flat out says we don't have Free Will, he does wrap it all up as a plea for Justice Reform and the need for a system that focuses on rehabilitation over punishment and compassionate isolation from society for those who can't be rehabilitated.

Just go to email share on the amazon page and it will give you a condensed link.

example - http://amzn.com/0307389928

VS

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307389928/ref=s9_simh_gw_p14_d5_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0Q60AXN4Z57GGYHPJ7GD&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1688200382&pf_rd_i=507846

How Emotions are Made, The Brain: The story of you, Incognito. Also maybe Gene.

Incognito is beginner friendly and will leave you wanting more.

"Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain" by David Eagleman is more neuroscience-focused but overlaps a lot with core psychology. Really great read. https://www.amazon.com/Incognito-Secret-Lives-David-Eagleman/dp/0307389928

Read this: http://www.amazon.com/Incognito-The-Secret-Lives-Brain/dp/0307389928

> No, that's just the choice you made.

So you're one of those religious types that don't accept evolution and scientific things like neuroscience, it sounds like. I didn't make the choice - I have never even as a child, accepted religion. Even when I was 3 and 4 years old. It just made no sense to me. That is how my brain is wired. There is no way for me to make myself believe. No way. Unless I tried to lie about it, which makes no sense, because your god/allah/shiva/kali/zeus would know it as they can read minds.

> You don't have to investigate literally every other mythology in order to negate it before accepting one as the truth, only the converse is required.

OK, so I'll go with Mithra, I guess. Good enough.

>If in the 80 odd years you are probably given to live on average and you didn't devote any time to investigating a threat as serious as "hell," then that's your fault, not that of any notion of predestination.


Oh, don't get me wrong. I've investigated way more than 95% of the entire human population, for sure.

It is not my fault. It is the way my brain is wired. I know my brain better than you. I've lived with it for a long time. But I think you need to read up on neurology. I wish more people would do that, rather than read their "holy" books. Try to read some books on neurology - try. Although they would probably fry your mind.

David Eagleman, Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

V. S. Ramachandran, The Tell-Tale Brain: A Neuroscientist's Quest for What Makes Us Human

I know that you will never be able to accept what the books write, or what I write. It would mess up your most basic beliefs. But I'll just give you those books, just in case you are brave. Remember, they are doing science, not beliefs. Science.

I really liked Incognito by David Eagleman. It is similar in style to Freakonomics and does a great job of simplifying the science and applying it to things we do every day.

This is also mentioned in Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman that is a really interesting and short read that you can get here

Yes, I've worked with both and understand the black box problem well.

> upload your neural information into a silicone based robot and you’ll still be the same person.

I strongly disagree with this. IMO the singularity folks overvalue the contents of thought and undervalue the physicality of consciousness.

Consider something like phantom limb syndrome. It has a profound impact on one's experience, and that's just with an appendage.

Now ask, what if the phantom limb is not a limb but is actually a part of the brain that you're not even aware of? You might feel like something is not quite right. But is that the "real" you? What is the self? The content of your thoughts, or the more abstract feeling of experience? How do you know if your thoughts are authentic?

I actually experienced something like that a few years ago and it was very disturbing. For about three weeks I felt as if part of my consciousness had switched off. I could still navigate the world and express myself verbally, but I couldn't help but feel like it wasn't the "real" me. I told people that I felt like a piece of me was missing, but I couldn't pinpoint it. It was kind of like the feeling of a missing tooth. Your tongue is drawn to the hole. It made me seriously doubt my executive function.

Eventually it went away but I never figured out why.

Now look at schizophrenics. They don't think they're insane. They perceive a world that you and I don't perceive, and in their minds they are 100% exercising free will. That's why it's so difficult to get them to take their medication -- it makes them feel less authentic.

A more common experience is lifelong depressives who find a treatment that works. Many of them describe the medicated self as "the real me." Really? All that neurological activity doesn't feel real, but 50 mg of Zoloft snaps it into place?

Oliver Sachs has documented even more bizarre neurological conditions. Combine that with the "competitive selves" theory outlined in Incognito and it really leads me to question how much "I" am in control.

These two pathologies have been documented and defined along with many others. But there are potentially infinite pathologies that have not yet been defined. How do you know that you're not suffering from some form of psychosis? One that makes you feel like you exercise free will?

On a therapeutic level, you might want to check out voice dialogue. (I'm not suggesting you need therapy, it's just an interesting view of behavior.) In going through it myself I discovered over a dozen distinct voices in my head, which my therapist said is common. The more I untangle those voices, the less I believe in free will.

If you have not read Incognito or Subliminal, I highly recommend them. Gives some great insight into the subconscious mind. One of the books talks a bit about early work by Freud on how he was right and wrong about his research.