Dean Buonomano

This is a book about time, both the physics of time, and how our brains understand and manipulate time.

Many animals have the ability to learn from experience, and to project how to hunt, hide from predators, and other things necessary for higher animals to survive in their relatively complex worlds. Humans are the only animals whom we are certain can reflect on the past, plan for the less immediate future, and imagine things that don't have a lot of connection to the real, immediate world. The list of animals whom we have some evidence may share this ability has expanded over my lifetime, but it still doesn't seem to be a common ability.

With our minds, we can in some sense travel in time.

Yet we don't really understand time. We can't really describe time or how we move in it. Unlike space, physically, we can only travel in one direction in time--into the future. All of our words for motion in time are borrowed from our words for motion in space. Over the last century, we have learned that time isn't separate from space; spacetime is one thing.

We don't really have a full understanding of how it works, as whole, but especially the time component.

And yet, we can dwell in the past, and imagine the future.

Buonomano discusses both the physics of time, and how our minds manipulate time. He can't do that without equations, and though he does try to limit that, and to explain the equations clearly, it's one of the less accessible books on either physics or the mind that I've tackled. Still, I did enjoy it, and do feel that I learned from it.

If you find the math more accessible than I do, you'll get more out of it than I did. Do consider giving it a try.

I bought this audiobook.… (altro)

Note to myself: Don't leave a long gap between reading the book and writing the review. In the case of "Brain Bugs" I must have actually read the book about 4 months ago.....maybe more but have only just come around to writing the review. And, of course, I've forgotten most of it. In fact I have had to re-read the book in order to write the review.........partially because my recall is poor and partly because it's actually a pretty tough book to review. It's tough in the sense that there is a mountain of content there about the operations of the brain and tough in the sense that it's hard to detect a clear "story". He covers off things like:
1. The memory web....we recall best by association and by stories. Two types of memory a) declarative memory...the capital of India is New Delhi and b) impact memory (how to ride a bike).
2. Memory upgrade required......the memories of our own experiences are not faithful reproductions but rather partial and fluid reconstructions based on a mosaic of events that span different points in space and time. We can have false memories and our brains are much better at recognising faces than storing numbers. It's the reverse with computers (at the moment).
3. Brain crashes.....the brain's remarkable capacity to learn, adapt, and reorganise has a flip side. In response to trauma, neural plasticity can be responsible for phenomena such as phantom limbs and tinnitus.
4. Temporal distortions......our intuitions about time are highly suspect and our judgements of time are greatly affected by context. We also seem to be genetically programmed to adopt short term solutions rather than long term solutions (which may deliver greater benefits).
5. Fear factor.....in animals (including humans) there is both hard-wired fear and learned fear. Phobias are characterised by an exaggerated and inappropriate sense of fear to specific stimuli. Our genetic responses are not appropriate for the kinds of situations we face today....terrorism, environmental issues etc.....and we are all too-well prepared to learn fear through observation. Hence we fear terrorism or invasion or death by shark attack out of all proportion to the real likelihood of being affected by these.
6. Unreasonable reasoning. We have two complementary neural systems....the automatic one responsible for rapid/unconscious decisions. This is the more emotional one ...it attends to whether things are good or bad; fair or unfair; reasonable or risky. The second one is conscious, reflective, effortful and benefits from practice and education. Some of our irrational responses are certainly attributable to the fact that the brain evolved to deal with different circumstances to those we face today.
7. The advertising bug. Whether marketing is executed through TV ads, Web sites, product placement in movies or though sales representatives, it unquestionably influences what we buy and desire. The propensity to learn by imitation and the associative architecture of the brain are surely two of the main reasons why our neural operating systems are so susceptible to marketing.
8. The supernatural bug. Most neuroscientists don't expect to find a "belief" centre in the brain and evidence to date indicates that religious beliefs likely engage a distributed network of different brain areas functioning as a committee. Buonomano suggests that if there is a genetic basis to our supernatural beliefs then they are probably the brain's default state and we have evolved mechanisms capable of suppressing these beliefs. (His reasoning here seems rather circular and unsatisfactory).
9. Debugging. Sometime in the distant future we may be able to reprogram the genetic code that controls our fear circuits etc., but in the short term, debugging of brain foibles will rely on education, culture and "effortful deliberation". Our experiences, cultures and education rewire our neural circuits, which in turn shape our thoughts, actions and decisions....which in turn alter our experiences and culture.....a never ending loop.We need to use our knowledge of neuroscience and psychology to teach us to recognise and compensate for our brain bugs.
As I said, there is a mountain of content there, and it's a bit difficult to see a clear thread through the whole. I guess his story might best be summarised as: the brain is a complex bit of "machinery" but because of its evolutionary development it operates with a lot of flaws and errors. Understanding these flaws should help us to deal with them and educate people about managing them.
Overall, a really interesting book. Well written. I learned a lot. Happy to give it 5 stars… (altro)