HUMANIST GALAXY OF SECULAR SCIENCE STARS: DAVID EAGLEMAN 3-8-21

ALPHABETICAL BRAIN™ VOCABULARY
HUMANIST GALAXY
OF SECULAR SCIENCE STARS
DAVID EAGLEMAN
March 8, 2021

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LIVEWIRED:
The Inside Story
of the Ever-Changing Brain
by David Eagleman.
Pantheon Books, 2020 (320 pages)

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BOOK OUTLINE
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note = Numbers in parentheses refer to pages

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"The enemy of memory is not time, it is other memories!"

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"Livewiring is more than a jaw-dropping curiosity of nature. It is the fundamental trick that allows for memory, flexible intelligence, and civilizations. It is about finding oneself without the tools for a job and fine-tuning the brain to create those tools."

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1) DELICATE PINK MAGISTERIUM (3-16)

2) JUST ADD WORLD (17-25)

3) THE INSIDE MIRRORS THE OUTSIDE (26-50)

4) WRAPPING AROUND THE INPUTS (51-108)

5) HOW TO GET A BETTER BODY (109-138)

6) WHY MATTERING MATTERS (139-158)

7) WHY LOVE KNOWS NOT ITS OWN DEPTH UNTIL THE HOUR OF SEPARATION (159-173)

8) BALANCING ON THE EDGE OF CHANGE (174-191)

9) WHY IS IT HARDER TO TEACH OLD DOGS NEW TRICKS? (192-231)

10) REMEMBER WHEN (207-231)

11) THE WOLF AND THE MARS ROVER (232-240)

12) FINDING 0TZI’S LONG-LOST LOVE (241-246)

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"Livewiring

is the fundamental trick that allows for memory, flexible intelligence, and civilizations. It is about finding oneself without the tools for a job and fine-tuning the brain to create those tools.

Livewiring is the mechanism through which evolution by natural selection is relieved of some impossible pressures..."

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note =

"Plasticity

is found at all levels, from synapses to whole brain regions. The constant fight for territory in the brain is a survival-of-the-fittest competition: each synapse, each neuron, each population, is fighting for resources. As the border wars are fought, the maps shift in such a way that the goals most important to the organism are always reflected in the structure of the brain."

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS (247-248)

NOTES (249-286)

FURTHER READING (287-297)

INDEX (299-308)

ILLUSTRATION CREDITS (309-310)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR (unpaged)

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AUTHOR NOTE, SUMMARY,
AND BOOK DESCRIPTION
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR = Dr. David Eagleman is a neuroscientist and internationally best-selling author. He teaches brain plasticity at Stanford University, is the creator and host of the Emmy-nominated television series The Brain, and is the CEO of Neosensory, a company that builds the next generation of neuroscience hardware. He is the author of seven previous books, Eagleman lives in Silicon Valley in California.

SUMMARY = The magic of the brain is not found in the parts it is made of but in the way those parts unceasingly reweave themselves in an electric living fabric. This book is not simply about what the brain is; it is about what it does.

BOOK DESCRIPTION = There is no more accomplished and accessible guide than renowned neuroscientist David Eagleman to help us understand the nature and changing texture of that fabric. With Eagleman's hallmark clarity and enthusiasm he reveals the myriad ways that the brain absorbs experience: developing, redeploying, organizing, and arranging the data it receives from the body's own absorption of external stimuli, which enables us to gain the skills, the facilities, and the practices that make us who we are.

What does drug withdrawal have in common with a broken heart? Why is the enemy of memory not time but other memories? How can a blind person learn to see with her tongue, or a deaf person learn to hear with his skin? Why did many people in the 1980s mistakenly perceive book pages to be slightly red in color? Why is the world's best archer armless? Might we someday control a robot with our thoughts, just as we do our fingers and toes? Why do we dream at night, and what does that have to do with the rotation of the Earth? The answers to these questions are right behind our eyes: in our brains.

Eagleman covers decades of the most important research into the functioning of the brain and presents new discoveries from his own research as well: about the nature of synesthesia, about dreaming, and about wearable devices that are revolutionizing how we think about our five human senses. Finally, the book is as deeply informative as it is accessible and brilliantly engaging.

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EDITORIAL BOOK REVIEWS
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PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY REVIEW = Neuroscientist Eagleman (The Brain) delivers an intellectually exhilarating look at neuroplasticity. In his view, the brain's ability to reconfigure connections between its different areas in response to feedback is "quite possibly the most gorgeous phenomenon in biology," and also holds exciting practical applications. Eagleman explains how the brain's "maps" of the body are not genetically precoded, but arrive "remarkably unfinished" at birth and are then molded by experience, and walks readers through the concept of cortical redeployment, in which the function of different brain areas is reallocated according to need--for instance, in blind people, the visual cortex doesn't go unused, but is adapted for other purposes. Optimistically proposing that humanity can use neuroplasticity to its advantage, Eagleman describes the therapeutic field devoted to substituting one sense for another, and the potential for augmentation of existing senses (as has occurred with some cornea transplantees who found themselves suddenly able to see ultraviolet light). Finally, Eagleman addresses the implications for future tech innovations, observing that AI systems, despite their now "mindblowingly impressive" state, lack the brain's essential plasticity. Eagleman's skill as teacher, bold vision, and command of current research will make this superb work a curious reader's delight.

BOOKLIST REVIEW = Neuroscientist Eagleman extols the dynamic nature of the human brain, describing it as "a cryptic kind of computational material, a living three-dimensional textile that shifts, reacts, and adjusts itself." At birth, human brains possess a limited number of built-in abilities but an immense amount of flexibility. During growth, people effectively "rewrite" brain circuitry as they adapt to their body, their experiences, and the outside world. Eagleman dubs this brain-modeling power and proficiency "livewired." He explores dreams, memory, illusions, and synesthesia. At times, his discussion intersects with philosophy: "The enemy of memory is not time, it's other memories." The bionic retinal chip (to treat blindness), the cochlear implant (for deafness), and how the brain decodes sensory data from the environment are reviewed. The resiliency of an adept armless archer and a child with only half a brain are spotlighted, while Eagleman enjoys pop-culture allusions such as Star Trek's Borg, Spider-Man villain Doc Ock, and the film Memento. Weighing in at about 3 pounds, the human brain, Eagleman avers [to state positively; assert], is a biological dynamo that remains, in many ways, a magnificent mystery.

LIBRARY JOURNAL REVIEW = The brain is a dynamic system that is constantly rewiring its circuitry in order to best tackle challenges, explains Eagleman (neuroscience, Stanford Univ.; Incognito and Sum). Plasticity is a word traditionally used to describe the brain's ability to mold itself to new circumstances, but, to the author, this word is too static. He prefers the term livewired, as it better describes the function of the brain, an infinitely adaptable "information-seeking system." The human brain is remarkably unfinished at birth, states Eagleman, and requires interaction with the world in order to grow and develop. He provides readers with ample neuroscientific research that illuminates brain function as well as many examples of the brain's ability to adapt to new circumstances. Most interesting is the work being conducted around the concept of sensory substitution by Eagleman and colleagues at their company, NeoSensory; their enthusiasm for the potential synergy between neuroscience and technology is palpable. VERDICT Eagleman claims that whatever information the brain is fed, it will learn to extract what it can, and there is much to extract from this fascinating work, that is recommended for readers interested in neuroscience, technology, and the intersection of the two. – Ragan O'Malley, Saint Ann's Sch., Brooklyn.

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PROFESSIONAL BOOK REVIEWS
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[1] Masterful... Outstanding popular science. – Kirkus Reviews (starred).

[2] An altogether fascinating tour of the astonishing plasticity and interconnectedness inside the cranial cradle of all of our experience of reality, animated by Eagleman's erudite enthusiasm for his subject, aglow with the ecstasy of sensemaking that comes when the seemingly unconnected snaps into a consummate totality of understanding. – Maria Popova, Brain Pickings.

[3] Vivid... Since the passing of Isaac Asimov, we have not had a working scientist like Mr. Eagleman, who engages his ideas in such a variety of modes. The book reads wonderfully like what a book would be if it were written by Oliver Sacks and William Gibson, Sitting on Carl Sagan's Front Lawn. – Wall Street Journal.

[4] Delivers an intellectually exhilarating look at neuroplasticity... Eagleman's skill as teacher, bold vision, and command of current research will make this superb work a curious reader's delight. – Publishers Weekly (starred).

[5] David Eagleman is the Jolly Sherlock Holmes of neuroscience. He makes me believe that the universe of possibility required to create utopia is already housed in each of our brains. His knowledge and enthusiasm are intoxicating. His book demonstrates the principle about which he is writing; my mind has been changed by his words. – Russell Brand, Comedian & Activist.

[6] There is much to learn from this fascinating book. It is recommended for readers interested in neuroscience, technology, and the intersection of the two. – Library Journal (starred).

[7] The pages of the book are chockfull of mind-bending ideas and dazzling insights. Eagleman's infectious enthusiasm, his use of fascinating anecdotes, and his clear, effortless prose render the secrets of the brain's adaptability into a truly compelling page-turner. The book is a fun whirlwind exploration of the most complex thing in the universe. – Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner.

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AMAZON READER REVIEWS
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[1] Michelle K. - Read everything by this author, seriously!

[2] K. Buckley = The last chapter of David Eagleman's newest book should be the first as well as required reading for everyone. I would have given this one five stars if it was not for the author's tendency to generalize from very limited studies and anecdotal examples. His discussion of great musicians, for instance, ignores the fact that any number of maestrae and maestros did not begin playing until their teens, which Eagleman says is impossible. Readers should carefully investigate each footnote as many contain information that weakens theories presented in the text. Overall, however, a stunning achievement. Fans of the books, Incognito and The Brain will be thrilled.

[3] Ali = If you are completely new to neurology and neuroscience you may enjoy this book. I wished this was a new updated version of Oliver Sacks books. Unfortunately, it is not.

[4] Mikhail Gavrilec - Too many ads. = I have mixed feelings about this book: On the one hand, the book has a lot of interesting and even practical information. There are many places in the book where I was very engaged. On the other hand, this book has too many advertisements. Some claims do not have sufficient scientific support. I can't even recommend this book to somebody to hear — "Do you sell neosensory vests?"

[5] Christa T. - Great read = I bought this book for my teenage daughter who is interested in how people's minds work. When I received the book I opened it up and began skimming through the chapters. I didn't want to put it down. I did, so I could wrap it up for her birthday, but I may finish reading it before she does!

[6] Dr. Ali Binazir - A masterpiece of popular science, and one of the most hopeful books I have ever read = Let us say there is a kid who has the worst case of epilepsy ever. Like, seizures every 20 minutes. Doctor says the only treatment is a hemispherectomy, which is exactly what it sounds like — removal of half the kid's brain. What do you think happens after the operation? How will the kid do?

If you said, "Well, the kid's going to lose his ability to walk, talk, do anything really," you would be correct — but only for a few months. Because what actually happened to Matthew was that with intensive rehab, the remaining half of his brain adapted itself to take over the missing functions of the other half. And now, when Matthew serves you at a restaurant, you can't tell him apart from a normal person. If that doesn't blow your mind, check out the picture of his brain with half of it a black void.

"Livewired" is the catchy term David Eagleman has coined to describe the miraculous ability of the brain to adapt in concert with its environment and make sense of the world. With fluid prose and crystal-clear analogies, Eagleman explains the function of the cerebral cortex as a general computing machine that can take any kind of input from environmental sensors; such as the light sensors in your eye, the air-pressure sensors in your ear, or the vibrations from a wrist band — and turn it into meaning.

Eagleman is particularly qualified to talk about this since he is not only a neuroscientist, but also as an inventor creating a whole new frontier of livewiring via his company NeoSensory. Using vests and wristbands that transduce outside information like sound or light into mechanical vibrations, NeoSensory is not only giving some sight and hearing ability back to those who have lost it; it is also creating whole new senses that did not even exist before: "We tapped into the lidar stream [at Google headquarters] and hooked it up to the Vest. Then we brought in Alex, a blind young man. We strapped the Vest on him, and now — just like the soldiers in Westworld — he could feel the location of those moving around him. He could see in 360 degrees, going from blind to Jedi. And there was a zero learning curve: he immediately got it." Ladies and gentlemen — this is science fiction made real.

Taking the idea further, Eagleman makes us wonder whether a livewired, self-adapting home and electric grid could be right around the corner. Trippy, sure, but why not? And that is what I particularly appreciate about Eagleman's work: he provokes us to think about both the stuff we take for granted and the radical "adjacent possible." This is especially fun since the book is talking about the very same thing you are using to read it (not the Kindle, I mean your brain). For example, if the brain is so damn changeable, how can we even hold on to any memories before they get overwritten by new stuff?

The book is Eagleman's platform for some big new scientific ideas, e.g. the brain as an information-maximizing machine; the basis of synesthesia; and the purpose of dreaming (hint: so you do not go blind). It is also very entertaining. Along the way you will meet: a surfing dog, a skateboarding dog, and a bipedal dog; an armless archery champ; people who hate their limbs; a man with no short-term memory; and a woman who forgets nothing.

Astonishing visual illusions will make you doubt your own sanity. With masterful storytelling, lucid analogies and thought-provoking new ideas, the book is a mind-expanding masterpiece of popular science. It is also one of the most hopeful books I have ever read. It is particularly needed in these uncertain times. Read it to renew your faith in the human spirit and also to appreciate the gifts of your own miraculous brain. [Ali Binazir, M.D., M.Phil., Happiness Engineer and author of The Tao of Dating: The Smart Woman's Guide to Being Absolutely Irresistible (the most-highlighted book on Amazon), and Should I Go to Medical School? — An Irreverent Guide to the Pros and Cons of a Career in Medicine.

[7] Quentin Ferry - Highly recommended = Brilliant book! I Learned something new at every page. Eagleman's writing is very nice and he certainly has a gift for keeping the reader engaged. Highly recommended.

[8] Steven W. Cotton - Expanding the neural net = Eagleman takes on a somewhat more technical view of the brain as it relates to external peripheral and changing input modalities. It is interesting how our brain can "adopt" external apparatuses as extensions of ourselves. Thinking on one side of the world can affect what happens on the other side via a neural link (Yes, thinking).

I thought I was going to learn more about the way the brain operates per se but the author takes us in another direction by relating how our brain is a ready-made general-purpose device that can incorporate any number of internal and external interfaces to enhance its operation. We can "upgrade" normal aspects of brain function as well as replace malfunctioning limbs and appendages to recover and even improve overall mental and physical health. It is difficult to fathom where all of this brain wiring will lead us, but the book gives us a modern take on the possibilities.

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EXCERPTS - CHAPTER 1
THE DELICATE PINK MAGISTERIUM
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Imagine this: instead of sending a four-hundred-pound rover vehicle to Mars, we merely shoot over to the planet a single sphere, one that can fit on the end of a pin. Using energy from sources around it, the sphere divides itself into a diversified army of similar spheres. The spheres hang on to each other and sprout features: wheels, lenses, temperature sensors, and a full internal guidance system. You would be gobsmacked to watch such a system discharge itself.

But you only need to go to any nursery to see this unpacking in action. You'll see wailing babies who began as a single, microscopic, fertilized egg and are now in the process of emancipating themselves into enormous humans, replete with photon detectors, multi-jointed appendages, pressure sensors, blood pumps, and machinery for metabolizing power from all around them. But this is not even the best part about humans; there is something more astonishing. Our machinery is not fully preprogrammed, but instead shapes itself by interacting with the world. As we grow, we constantly rewrite our brain's circuitry to tackle challenges, leverage opportunities, and understand the social structures around us.

Our species has successfully taken over every corner of the globe because we represent the highest expression of a trick that Mother Nature discovered: don't entirely pre-script the brain; instead, just set it up with the basic building blocks and get it into the world. The bawling baby eventually stops crying, looks around, and absorbs the world around it. It molds itself to the surroundings. It soaks up everything from local language to broader culture to global politics. It carries forward the beliefs and biases of those who raise it. Every fond memory it possesses, every lesson it learns, every drop of information it drinks — all these fashion its circuits to develop something that was never preplanned, but instead reflects the world around it.

This book will show how our brains incessantly reconfigure their own wiring, and what that means for our lives and our futures. Along the way, we will find our story illuminated by many questions: Why did people in the 1980s (and only in the 1980s) see book pages as slightly red? Why is the world's best archer armless? Why do we dream each night, and what does that have to do with the rotation of the planet? What does drug withdrawal have in common with a broken heart? Why is the enemy of memory not time but other memories? How can a blind person learn to see with her tongue or a deaf person learn to hear with his skin? Might we someday be able to read the rough details of someone's life from the microscopic structure etched in their forest of brain cells?

THE CHILD WITH HALF A BRAIN

While Valerie S. was getting ready for work, her three-year-old son, Matthew, collapsed on the floor. He was unarousable. His lips turned blue. Valerie called her husband in a panic. "Why are you calling me?" he bellowed. "Call the doctor!" A trip to the emergency room was followed by a long aftermath of appointments. The pediatrician recommended Matthew have his heart checked. The cardiologist outfitted him with a heart monitor, which Matthew kept unplugging. All the visits surfaced nothing in particular. The scare was a one-off event. Or so they thought. A month later, while he was eating, Matthew's face took on a strange expression. His eyes became intense, his right arm stiffened and straightened up above his head, and he remained unresponsive for about a minute. Again Valerie rushed him to the doctors; again there was no clear diagnosis. Then it happened again the next day.

A neurologist hooked up Matthew with a cap of electrodes to measure his brain activity, and that's when he found the telltale signs of epilepsy. Matthew was put on seizure medications. The medications helped, but not for long. Soon Matthew was having a series of intractable seizures, separated from one another first by an hour, then by forty-five minutes, then by thirty minutes — like the shortening durations between a woman's contractions during labor. After a time he was suffering a seizure every two minutes. Valerie and her husband, Jim, hurried Matthew to the hospital each time such a series began, and he'd be housed there for days to weeks. After several stints of this routine, they would wait until his "contractions" had reached the twenty-minute mark and then call ahead to the hospital, climb in the car, and get Matthew something to eat at McDonald's on the way there.

Matthew, meanwhile, labored to enjoy life between seizures. The family checked into the hospital ten times each year. This routine continued for three years. Valerie and Jim began to mourn the loss of their healthy child — not because he was going to die, but because he was no longer going to live a normal life. They went through anger and denial. Their normal changed. Finally, during a three-week hospital stay, the neurologists had to allow that this problem was bigger than they knew how to handle at the local hospital. So the family took an air ambulance flight from their home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore. It was here, in the pediatric intensive care unit, that they came to understand that Matthew had Rasmussen's encephalitis, a rare, chronic inflammatory disease. The problem with the disease is that it affects not just a small bit of the brain but an entire half. Valerie and Jim explored their options and were alarmed to learn there was only one known treatment for Matthew's condition: a hemispherectomy, or the surgical removal of an entire half of the brain. "I can't tell you anything the doctors said after that," Valerie told me. "One just shuts down, like everyone's talking a foreign language." Valerie and Jim tried other approaches, but they proved fruitless. When Valerie called Johns Hopkins hospital to schedule the hemispherectomy some months later, the doctor asked her, "Are you sure?" "Yes," she said. "Can you look in the mirror every day and know you have chosen what you have needed to do?"

Valerie and Jim could not sleep beneath the crushing anxiety. Could Matthew survive the surgery? Was it even possible to live with half of the brain missing? And even if so, would the removal of one hemisphere be so debilitating as to offer Matthew a life on terms not worth taking? But there were no more options. A normal life couldn't be lived in the shadow of multiple seizures each day. They found themselves weighing Matthew's assured disadvantages against an uncertain surgical outcome. Matthew's parents flew him to the hospital in Baltimore. Under a small child-sized mask, Matthew drifted away into the anesthesia. A blade carefully opened a slit in his shaved scalp. A bone drill cut a circular burr hole in his skull. Working patiently over the course of several hours, the surgeon removed half of the delicate pink material that underpinned Matthew's intellect, emotion, language, sense of humor, fears, and loves. The extracted brain tissue, useless outside its biological milieu, was banked in small containers. The empty half of Matthew's skull slowly filled up with cerebrospinal fluid, appearing in neuroimaging as a black void. In the recovery room, his parents drank hospital coffee and waited for Matthew to open his eyes. What would their son be like now? Who would he be with only half a brain?

Text excerpted from the book, Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain by David Eagleman.

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RECOMMENDATION: You can re-read this summary according to a reinforcement schedule, such as a few hours later and a few days later and then several times in the next week or two. This strategy can help you take advantage of the power of the spaced-repetition method of memorization. Such deep introspection can strengthen your willpower and increase your self-esteem by changing your adaptable self-identity.

REMEMBER ALWAYS:
You Are Your Adaptable Memory!

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