Why do human brains need social interaction? Why might AI chatbots be insufficient to scratch the itch? What do we love so much about real human touch and in-person interaction? Why do so many of us live with dogs? From empathy to introversion to social media to isolation (and what to do about it), we’ve got it all this week with guest Ben Rein, author of the new book Why Brains Need Friends. 

Why do human brains need social interaction? Why might AI chatbots be insufficient to scratch the itch? What do we love so much about real human touch and in-person interaction? Why do&nbsp;so many of us live with dogs? From empathy to introversion to social media to isolation (and what to do about it), we&rsquo;ve got it all this week with guest Ben Rein, author of the new book Why Brains Need Friends.&nbsp;

Neuroscientist and author David Eagleman discusses how our brain interprets the world and what that means for us. Through storytelling, research, interviews, and experiments, David Eagleman tackles wild questions that illuminate new facets of our lives and our realities.

Neuroscientist and author David Eagleman discusses how our brain interprets the world and what that means for us. Through storytelling, research, interviews, and experiments, David Eagleman tackles wild questions that illuminate new facets of our lives and our realities.

Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman

Ep125 "Why do brains need friends?" (with Ben Rein)

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/e92e03df-6220-44ec-abe5-b375002af1cc/transcript

How can a brain grow up in chaos but find its way to order? There are many ways to have a bad childhood, but why do some children break while others bend and keep going? How much of who you are is written in your genes & how much is sculpted by your environment? How many versions of you were possible & why did this one win out? Join Eagleman today with David Sussillo, who was abandoned as a child but grew up to become a neuroscientist & technologist. We’ll explore what his trajectory teaches about our genes, brains, and our own lives.

How can a brain grow up in chaos but find its way to order? There are many ways to have a bad childhood, but why do some children break while others bend and keep going? How much of who you are is written in your genes &amp; how much is sculpted by your environment? How many versions of you were possible &amp; why did this one win out? Join Eagleman today with David Sussillo, who was abandoned as a child but grew up to become a neuroscientist &amp; technologist. We&rsquo;ll explore what his trajectory teaches about our genes, brains, and our own lives.

Ep149 "What makes a brain grow up resilient?" with David Sussillo

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/cf494ab3-6a1e-427e-b01c-b42b0062a7b7/transcript

How can we improve political dialogue, and what does this have to do with the discovery that the universe behaves differently than expected? Why do we cling to beliefs even when evidence pushes against them? What if the biggest problem facing humanity could be solved with practice? Join Eagleman today with Saul Perlmutter, a Nobel-prize winning astrophysicist, but instead of the cosmos we talk about the inner cosmos: why polarization happens and how we might address it with a different kind of thinking.

How can we improve political dialogue, and what does this have to do with the discovery that the universe behaves differently than expected? Why do we cling to beliefs even when evidence pushes against them? What if the biggest problem facing humanity could be solved with practice? Join Eagleman today with Saul Perlmutter, a Nobel-prize winning astrophysicist, but instead of the cosmos we talk about the inner cosmos: why polarization happens and how we might address it with a different kind of thinking.

Ep148 "How can we improve political dialog?" with Saul Perlmutter

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/73bee524-784d-48f7-815d-b42400290dc4/transcript

Can the mind be captured with math? Modern AI seems to have burst out of the gate recently, but is it actually the latest chapter in a 300-year project to turn thought into something we can model? Why does current AI need petabytes of data, but a child can learn from just a few examples? Why does AI have 'jagged' intelligence – meaning it looks brilliant in one moment and then does something that seems nonsensical? In physics we have various laws (gravity, motion, etc), and today we’re joined by cognitive scientist Tom Griffiths to ask whether we're moving towards laws of thought.

Can the mind be captured with math? Modern AI seems to have burst out of the gate recently, but is it actually the latest chapter in a 300-year project to turn thought into something we can model? Why does current AI need petabytes of data, but a child can learn from just a few examples? Why does AI have 'jagged' intelligence &ndash; meaning it looks brilliant in one moment and then does something that seems nonsensical? In physics we have various laws (gravity, motion, etc), and today we&rsquo;re joined by cognitive scientist Tom Griffiths to ask whether we're moving towards laws of thought.

Ep147 "Can we engineer human thought?" with Tom Griffiths

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/88bb3014-e2ee-41c1-93aa-b41d00029034/transcript

Ep125 "Why do brains need friends?" (with Ben Rein)

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