ask a rock star neuroscientist.
(public post)
hallo loves
thank you for all your updates yesterday…i’m scrolling through them and still kinda dead to the world and a lot of them are making me happy, even the sad ones. maybe even especially the sad ones. since i still have my TED brain on, i’m reeling, listless and joyful at the way we might actually communicate mo’ better with one another given the very tight constraints of this platform. i am thinky thinky thinking.
one idea is this, and i may poke you to do it on certain posts more than others, but would you mind, if you have the time at moment-of-posting….would you mind posting WHERE YOU ARE when you post? and by that, i mean anything up to and including
-where on earth are you (city state country planet whatever)?
-what time it is?
-WHERE you are situated (on a couch? in bed? in bath? in car? on subway?)
-on what sorta device?
-and maybe…what else is going on that can paint a picture of our humanity?? like: maybe…..you are on your 4th glass of wine. you are tired. or you just woke up. or you are in your basement since your in-laws have stolen your house. there’s a cat in your lap. there’s a dead cat in your lap. there’s either a dead cat or an alive cat in your lap and you don’t know yet. you know…that sort of thing.
……i don’t know if this is going to muddy up the comments in the extreme…but i have found that when you share this information with me, it makes this place feels so much more human and emotionally tangible. you know? anyway, worth a shot. try it HERE!!
BECAUSE RIGHT NOW
i have a simple question/task for you…
this wednesday, i am going to be in a conversation with david eagleman at the rubin museum in NYC. a small handful of you have tickets – the space is TINY.
we are recording the talk AND i’m going to interview david the next morning and i’m hoping to thread the whole thing together into a beautiful podcast for y’all. i’m still fiddling with the idea of HOW to do a podcast and this is all ingredients.
so that being the case, i’d LOVE for you to arm me with some questions and thoughts. if you’ve already read any of david’s books, you’re way ahead of the crowd. (they include a handful of bestsellers about OUR BRAINS…AND MORE….)
i’m reading this one right now and it’s mind-blowingly good…and ash just added some embellishments to the cover art:
it imagines 40 different scenarios in the afterlife, and starts like this:
“In the afterlife you relive all your experiences, but this time with the events reshuffled into a new order: all the moments that share a quality are grouped together.
You spend two months driving the street in front of your house, seven months having sex. You sleep for thirty years without opening your eyes. For five months straight you flip through magazines while sitting on a toilet.”
i mean….this is david; he is amazing.
BUT HAVE NO FEAR: if you have 20 minutes, PLEASE watch his TED talk…i embedded it in this post and it’s here:
https://www.ted.com/talks/david_eagleman_can_we_create_new_senses_for_humans
i was in the audience in 2015 when david gave this talk and got chills. it’s impossible to explain, so just watch, but suffice it to say that it will change to way you think about your brain, the way it perceives reality, and what can be done for people with “sensory disabilities”.
the talk may disturb you….but this is GOOD! if it does, write down why in the comments and arm me with some good questions for david. he knows many many things about the brain, neuroscience and perception – ASK AWAY!!! as i’m putting my notes for the podcast and the events, i’ll scan through the comments – no question or idea is too dumb to toss out. but bear in mind; i’m going to be asking him the kinds of things *i* would ask – it’ll be way more about feelings than about the technicalities of receptors. nature of reality = good! really impossible to understand things from PhD neuroscientists = bad! be kind to me!
ok ASK.
i love you. and where are you? tell me that, too.
UND….try to get me your questions in the next 48 hours (before tuesday night).
x
a
——THE NEVER-ENDING AS ALWAYS———
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