Price: $22.51
(as of Sep 29, 2024 07:46:22 UTC – Details)
Shortlisted for the 2020 Baillie Gifford Prize
This is the story of our quest to understand the most mysterious object in the universe: the human brain.
Today we tend to picture it as a computer. Earlier scientists thought about it in their own technological terms: as a telephone switchboard, or a clock, or all manner of fantastic mechanical or hydraulic devices. Could the right metaphor unlock the its deepest secrets once and for all?
Galloping through centuries of wild speculation and ingenious, sometimes macabre anatomical investigations, scientist and historian Matthew Cobb reveals how we came to our present state of knowledge. Our latest theories allow us to create artificial memories in the brain of a mouse, and to build AI programmes capable of extraordinary cognitive feats. A complete understanding seems within our grasp.
But to make that final breakthrough, we may need a radical new approach. At every step of our quest, Cobb shows that it was new ideas that brought illumination. Where, he asks, might the next one come from? What will it be?
Publisher : Profile Books; Main edition (March 4, 2021)
Language : English
Paperback : 480 pages
ISBN-10 : 1781255903
ISBN-13 : 978-1781255902
Item Weight : 13.5 ounces
Dimensions : 5.08 x 1.14 x 7.8 inches
Customers say
Customers find the book full of new information and insights. They say it skillfully uses history and science to show where we are in our understanding. Readers also describe the book as a wonderful, fun read that reads like a novel. They praise the writing style as well-written and easy to follow.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
