We are made up of an entire parliament of pieces and parts and subsystems. Beyond a collection of local expert systems, we are collections of overlapping, ceaselessly reinvented mechanism, a group of competing factions. The conscious mind fabricates stories to explain the sometimes inexplicable dynamics of the subsystem inside brain. It can be disquieting to consider the extent to which all of our actions are driven by hardwired systems doing what they do best while we overlay stories about choices.
David EaglemanThis is what consciousness does: it sets the goals, and the rest of the system learns how to meet them.
David EaglemanInstead of reality being passively recorded by the brain, it is actively constructed by it.
David EaglemanYou are more likely to believe that a statement is true if you have heard it before - whether or not it is actually true.
David EaglemanThe drives you take for granted ("I'm a hetero/homosexual," "I'm attracted to children/adults," "I'm aggressive/not aggressive," and so on) depend on the intricate details of your neural machinery.
David Eagleman