Science exists, in part, in large measure, because the data taking faculties of the human body are faulty. And what science does as an enterprise is provide ways to get data, acquire data from the natural world that don’t have to filter through your senses. And this ensures, or at least minimizes as far as possible, the capacity of your brain to fool itself.
So to the neuroscientist, the brain is this amazing organ. And to the physical scientist, it’s like, ‘get it out of here.’ Leave it at home. Just bring your box, and have the box make the measurements.
”-Neil Tyson, quoted in Discover Magazine blog from an interview on a recent episode of NOVA ScienceNow entitled “How Does the Brain Work?”
I’m currently in a book group reading Douglas Hofstader’s Godel Escher Bach, and between those weekly discussions and the whole IBM Watson/Jeopardy! thing pushing neuroscience and artificial intelligence into the news, my interest in this stuff has been rekindled in a way it hasn’t been for quite some time (maybe since college). I also like how the segment of the Tyson interview they excerpt dovetails nicely with the work of Dan Ariely and behavioral economics.
Thanks to @artfulaction for sending this my way.
(Source: blogs.discovermagazine.com)
